Abstract
In this chapter, we make some general comments about the nature of scientific explanation and use them to contextualize recent debates within evolutionary biology about the adequacy of what is sometimes termed standard evolutionary theory. These comments serve to introduce the aims of the book and we then summarize the chapters to follow, relating them to the opening themes.
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Notes
- 1.
Some historians of science prefer to use the term Evolutionary Synthesis to denote the process of theoretical synthesis and to separate it from claims to modernity (Smocovitis 1996).
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Dickins, T.E., Dickins, B.J.A. (2023). Introduction. In: Dickins, T.E., Dickins, B.J. (eds) Evolutionary Biology: Contemporary and Historical Reflections Upon Core Theory. Evolutionary Biology – New Perspectives on Its Development, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22028-9_1
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