Essays in philosophical biology

Abstract

Philosophical biology, one might venture to assert, is an effort to delve as deeply as possible into the underpinnings of biological structure. Consequently the effort will be, first, to understand how continuity can be maintained in the drastic change from cold-blooded to warm-blooded vertebrates, from the property of cold-bloodedness to the property of warm-bloodedness. The effort will be extended, second, to consider how properties, in the fully explained sense provided by philosophers, can be used to explain winter and summer adaptedness, and to explain adaptedness and non-adaptedness. Finally, the effort will take up, third, what is deeply germane in a distinction between two environments, the ocean and land environment – for the relational supporting and the attributional suited to dictate very different accounts of environment and species in the Pacific Ocean and on the North American continent. The three efforts just mentioned will be presented as: I. Can evolution be philosophically integrated?; II. Properties and adaptation; III. A view of two worlds.