Skip to main content
Log in

The Evolutionary Structure of Scientific Theories

  • Published:
Biology and Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

David Hull's (1988c) model of science as a selection process suffers from a two-fold inability: (a) to ascertain when a lineage of theories has been established; i.e., when theories are descendants of older theories or are novelties, and what counts as a distinct lineage; and (b) to specify what the scientific analogue is of genotype and phenotype. This paper seeks to clarify these issues and to propose an abstract model of theories analogous to particulate genetic structure, in order to reconstruct relationships of descent and identity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Axelrod, R.: 1981, 'The Emergence of Cooperation Among Egoists', American Political Science Review 75.

  • Axelrod, R.: 1984, The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books.

  • Becker, P.H.: 1993, 'Common Pitfalls in Published Grounded Theory Research', Qualitative Health Research 32.

  • Callebaut, W. and Pinxten, R. (eds.): 1987, Evolutionary Epistemology, A Multiparadigm Approach, D. Reidel.

  • Collier, J.: 1988, 'Supervenience and Reduction in Biological Hierarchies', Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary 14, 209–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, R.: 1977, The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press (1989 edition).

  • Dawkins, R.: 1982, The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene, Oxford University Press, revised 1989.

  • Dawkins, R.: 1986, The Blind Watchmaker, Longman Scientific and Technical.

  • Dawkins, R.: 1995, River Out of Eden, Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

  • Dawkins, R.: 1996, Climbing Mount Improbable, Viking Press.

  • Dennett, D.C.: 1995, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, Simon & Schuster.

  • Desmond, A. and Moore, J.: 1991, Darwin, Michael Joseph.

  • Dyke, C.: 1988, The Evolutionary Dynamics of Complex Systems: A Study in Biosocial Complexity, Oxford University Press.

  • Eldredge, N.: 1985, Time Frames: The Rethinking of Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria, Heinemann. Includes Eldredge and Gould 1972.

  • Eldredge, N.: 1989, Macroevolutionary Dynamics: Species, Niches, and Adaptive Peaks, McGraw-Hill.

  • Eldredge, N.: 1995, Reinventing Darwin: The Great Evolutionary Debate, Weidenfeld and Nicholson.

  • Eldredge, N. and Gould, S.: 1972, 'Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism', in T. Schopf (ed.), Models in Paleobiology, Freeman, Cooper & Co. (Also in Eldredge 1985)

  • Ellis, B.: 1979, Rational Belief Systems, Rowman & Littlefield.

  • Ereshefsky, M.: 1991, 'The Semantic Approach to Evolutionary Theory', Biology and Philosophy 6: 59–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, R.A.: 1930, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Clarendon Press.

  • van Fraassen, B.: 1970, 'On the Extension of Beth's Semantics in Physical Theories', Philosophy of Science 37: 325–339.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Fraassen, B.: 1980, The Scientific Image, Clarendon.

  • Garfinkel, A.: 1981, Forms of Explanation: Rethinking the Questions in Social Theory, Yale University Press.

  • Ghiselin, M.T.: 1969, The Triumph of the Darwinian Method, 1984 University of Chicago Press reprint with new preface.

  • Glaser, B.G.: 1978, Theoretical Sensitivity, Sociology Press.

  • Gould, S.J.: 1983, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History, Norton.

  • Hamilton, W.D.: 1964, 'The Genetical Theory of Social Behaviour: I and II', Journal of Theoretical Biology 7: 1–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, R.: 1971, 'Collective Action as an Agreeable n-Prisoners' Dilemma', Behavioral Science 16.

  • Hardin, R.: 1982, Collective Action, John Hopkins University Press.

  • Heyes, C.: 1988, 'Are Scientists Agents in Scientific Change?', Biology and Philosophy 3: 194–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L.: 1980, 'Individuality and Selection', Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 311–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L.: 1988a, 'A Mechanism and its Metaphysics: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science', Biology and Philosophy 3: 125–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L.: 1988b, 'A Period of Development: A Response', Biology and Philosophy 3: 241–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L.: 1988c, Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science, University of Chicago Press.

  • Kuhn, T.S.: 1977a, 'Second Thoughts on Paradigms', in Suppe 1977. Also in Kuhn 1977b.

  • Kuhn, T.S.: 1977b, The Essential Tension: Selected Studies In Scientific Tradition and Change, University of Chicago Press.

  • Lloyd, E.A.: 1989, The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory, Greenwood Press.

  • Lumsden, C.J. and Wilson, E.O.: 1981, Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process, Harvard University Press.

  • Maynard Smith, J.: 1983, Evolution and the Theory of Games, Cambridge University Press.

  • Mayr, E.: 1982, The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

  • Mosterin, J.: 1988, 'Ontological Queries and Evolutionary Processes. Comments on Hull', Biology and Philosophy 3: 204–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munévar, G.: 1988, 'Hull, Straight Biology, and Straight Epistemology', Biology and Philosophy 3: 209–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nitecki, M.H. (ed.): 1988, Evolutionary Progress, University of Chicago Press.

  • Osgood, C., Suci, G. and Tannenbaum, P.: 1967, The Measurement of Meaning, University of Illinois Press.

  • Oyama, S.: 1985, The Ontogeny of Information: Developmental Systems and Evolution, Cambridge University Press.

  • Panchen, A.L.: 1992, Classification, Evolution, and the Nature of Biology, Cambridge University Press.

  • Plotkin, H.C.: 1994, The Nature of Knowledge: Concerning Adaptations, Instinct and the Evolution of Intelligence, Penguin; also published as Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge, Harvard University Press.

  • Prigogine, I. and Stengers, I.: 1985, Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature, Fontana.

  • Quine, W.V.: 1969a, Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, Columbia University Press.

  • Quine, W.V.: 1969b, 'Epistemology Naturalized', in Quine 1969a.

  • Quine, W.V.: 1969c, ''Natural Kinds', in Quine 1969a.

  • Radnitzky, G.: 1982, 'Analytic Philosophy as the Confrontation between Wittgensteinians and Popper', Scientific Philosophy Today, Essays in Honor of Mario Bunge, Reidel.

  • Radnitzky, G. and Bartley, W.W. III (eds.): 1987, Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge, Open Court.

  • Richards, R.J.: 1987, Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior, University of Chicago Press.

  • Richards, R.J.: 1992, The Meaning of Evolution: The Morphological Construction and Ideological Reconstruction of Darwin's Theory, University of Chicago Press.

  • Ruse, M.: 1989, The Darwinian Paradigm: Essays on its History, Philosophy, and Religious Implications, Routledge.

  • Scott-Ram, N.R.: 1990, Transformed Cladistics, Taxonomy, and Evolution, Cambridge University press.

  • Simpson, G.: 1944, Tempo and Mode in Evolution, Columbia University Press.

  • Smith, C.U.M.: 1988, 'Send Reinforcements We're Going to Advance', Biology and Philosophy 3: 214–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, E.: 1981, 'Revisability, A Priori Truth, and Evolution', Australasian Journal of Philosophy 59: 86–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, E.: 1984, The Nature of Selection, MIT Press (1985 reprint with amendments).

  • Sterelny, K.: 1995: 'Understanding Life: Recent Work in Philosophy of Biology', British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 46: 155–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, A.L.: 1987, Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists, Cambridge University Press.

  • Suppe, F. (ed.): 1977, The Structure of Scientific Theories, second edition, University of Illinois Press. (Includes Kuhn's "second Thoughts')

  • Suppe, F.: 1977a, 'Introduction', to Suppe (ed.) 1977. Corrected version of the 1973 introduction to the first edition.

  • Suppe, F.: 1977b, 'Afterword – 1977', in Suppe (ed.) 1977.

  • Suppe, F.: 1989, The Semantic Conception of Theories and Scientific Realism, University of Illinois Press.

  • Tennant, N.: 1988, 'Theories, Concepts and Rationality in an Evolutionary Account of Science', Biology and Philosophy 3: 224–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toulmin, S.: 1970, 'Does the Distinction Between Normal and Revolutionary Science Hold Water?', in Lakatos and Musgrave 1970.

  • Tulloch, G.: 1972, Towards a Mathematics of Politics, University Michigan Press.

  • Weber, B.H, Depew, D.J. and Smith, J.D.: 1988, Entropy, Information and Evolution: New Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution, MIT Press.

  • Wiley, E.O.: 1988, 'Entropy and Evolution', in Weber and others 1988.

  • Wiley, E.O., Siegel-Causey, D., Brooks, D.R. and Funk, V.A.: 1991, The Compleat Cladist: A Primer of Phylogenetic Procedures, The University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History, Special Publication No. 19.

  • Williams, G.C.: 1966, Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought, Princeton University Press.

  • Williams, G.C.: 1992, Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges, Oxford University Press.

  • Wittgenstein, L.: 1922, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1961 translation by D.F. Pears and B.F. McGuiness, Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wilkins, J.S. The Evolutionary Structure of Scientific Theories. Biology & Philosophy 13, 479–504 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006507411225

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006507411225

Navigation