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James A. Shapiro: Evolution. A View from the 21st Century FT Press: Upper Saddle River, N.J., 2011, 272 pp., $ 31.49, ISBN 978-0-13-278093-3 Gerhard Schurz: Evolution in Natur und Kultur Spektrum: Heidelberg 2011, 436 + XII pp., € 39.95, ISBN 978-3-8274-2665-9

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Notes

  1. Original: “Mit etwas Wagemut kann die wissenschaftstheoretische These formuliert werden, dass die Verallgemeinerte Evolutionstheorie derzeit im Begriff ist, sich über ein Leitparadigma der Lebenswissenschaften hinaus zu einem übergreifenden Rahmenparadigma aller gegenstandsbezogenen Wissenschaften und der zugehörigen Wissenschaftsphilosophien zu entwickeln[.]” All translations of the original text from German were done by the author of this review.

  2. Hereafter cited as EVC.

  3. Engl. Evolution in Nature and Culture: an Introduction to Generalized Evolutionary Theory. Hereafter cited as ENK.

  4. Leitparadigma (ENK xiv).

  5. Rahmenparadigma (ENK xiv).

  6. Gegenstandsneutral (ENK 132).

  7. “In Bezug auf Meme befänden wir uns heute noch dort, wo sich Darwin in Bezug auf Gene befand.”.

  8. Table 6.2 (ENK 146) sketches the general analogies that one can draw between evolutionary systems in cosmology and biology. According to Schurz, ecological niches correspond to feeding zones (i.e. areas around forming planetoids in which clumps of smaller-mass objects are attracted by the gravitation to the planetoid they are orbiting), fitness corresponds to the probability of a smaller object being retained in the forming planetoid's orbit, and extinction corresponds to clumps of matter being absorbed by the forming body.

  9. “In der Fütterungszone (feeding zone) eines jeden Planeten, also in der Nachbarschaft seiner Umlaufbahn, kämpften dereinst viele kleine Körper darum, zu wachsen und durch Gravitation weitere Teilchen anzuziehen – schließlich überlebte nur ein Riesenklumpen, eben der heutige Planet, und in seiner Fütterungszone ist fast alles von Materieklumpen leer geräumt […]. Die Planetenbildung ist ein Musterbeispiel eines protoevolutionären Prozesses, dessen Komponenten sich wie in Tab. 6.2 dargestellt den Komponenten eines evolutionären Prozesse zuordnen lassen.” (145, emphasis modified from original).

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  1. Abteilung Philosophie, Universität Bielefeld, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany

    Daniel S. Brooks

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Brooks, D.S. Book Reviews. J Gen Philos Sci 44, 235–245 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-013-9211-y

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