Ecology has gradually gained salience during the last few decades and ecological issues, including land use changes, global warming, biodiversity loss, food shortage, and so forth, seem to be gaining public attention. Though philosophers of science had given little attention to ecology, there is a lot of interesting work being currently pursued in philosophy of ecology and environmental philosophy. As Colyvan and colleagues put it, “ecology is an important and fascinating branch of biology, with distinctive philosophical issues” (Colyvan et al. (...) 2009, p. 21). Given its conceptual and methodological familiarity with the social sciences, ecology occupies a unique position among other disciplines (Cooper 2003). (shrink)

Ecology has had a lower profile in Biology & Philosophy than one might expect on the basis of the attention ecology is given in public discussions in relation to environmental issues. Our tentative explanation is that ecology appears theoretically redundant within biology and, consequently, philosophically challenging problemsrelated to biology are commonly supposed to be somewhere else, particularly in the molecular sphere. Richard Levins has recognized the genuine challenges posed by ecology for theoretical and philosophical thinking in biology. This essay sets (...) the stage for appreciating his work; it was preceded by four articles published in Biology & Philosophy 15(2),and is followed by a personal reminiscent. (shrink)