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A Matter of Individuality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

David L. Hull
David L. Hull*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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Abstract

Biological species have been treated traditionally as spatiotemporally unrestricted classes. If they are to perform the function which they do in the evolutionary process, they must be spatiotemporally localized individuals, historical entities. Reinterpreting biological species as historical entities solves several important anomalies in biology, in philosophy of biology, and within philosophy itself. It also has important implications for any attempt to present an “evolutionary” analysis of science and for sciences such as anthropology which are devoted to the study of single species.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 335 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1978

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Footnotes

†

The research for this paper was supported by NSF grant Soc 75 03535. I am indebted to the following people for reading and criticizing early versions of this paper: Michael Ghiselin, Stephen Gould, G. C. D. Griffiths, John Koethe, Ernst Mayr, Bella Selan, W. J. van der Steen, Gareth Nelson, Michael Perloff, Mark Ridley, Michael Ruse, Thomas Schopf, Paul Teller, Leigh Van Valen, Linda Wessels, Mary Williams, and William Wimsatt. Their advice and criticisms are much appreciated.

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