This volume explores questions about conceptual change from both
scientific and philosophical viewpoints by analyzing the recent history
of evolutionary developmental biology. It features revised papers that
originated from the workshop "Conceptual Change in Biological Science:
Evolutionary Developmental Biology, 1981-2011" held at the Max Planck
Institute for the History of Science in Berlin in July 2010. The Preface
has been written by Ron Amundson.
In these papers, philosophers and biologists compare and contrast key
concepts in evolutionary developmental biology and their development
since the original, seminal Dahlem conference on evolution and
development held in Berlin in 1981. Many of the original scientific
participants from the 1981 conference are also contributors to this new
volume and, in conjunction with other expert biologists and philosophers
specializing on these topics, provide an authoritative, comprehensive
view on the subject.
Taken together, the papers supply novel perspectives on how and why the
conceptual landscape has shifted and stabilized in particular ways,
yielding insights into the dynamic epistemic changes that have occurred
over the past three decades. This volume will appeal to philosophers of
biology studying conceptual change, evolutionary developmental
biologists focused on comprehending the genesis of their field and
evaluating its future directions, and historians of biology examining
this period when the intersection of ev
olution and development rose again to prominence in biological science.