They are correct that punctuated equilibria apply to sexually reproducing organisms and that morphological evolutionary change is regarded as largely (if not exclusively) correlated with speciation events. However, they err in suggesting that we attribute stasis strictly to "developmental constraints," which represent only one of a set of possible mechanisms that we have suggested for the causes of stasis. Others include habitat tracking and the internal structure of species themselves [for example, (2)].

_This sweeping discussion of the philosophy of evolutionary biology is based on the revolutionary idea that species are not kinds of organisms but wholes composed of organisms._.

This set of original essays by some of the best names in philosophy of science explores a range of diverse issues in the intersection of biology and epistemology. It asks whether the study of life requires a special biological approach to knowledge and concludes that it does not. The studies, taken together, help to develop and deepen our understanding of how biology works and what counts as warranted knowledge and as legitimate approaches to the study of life. The first section (...) deals with the nature of evidence and evolutionary theory as it came to dominate nineteenth-century philosophy of science; the second and third parts deal with the impact of laboratory and experimental research. This is an impressive team of authors, bringing together some of the most distinguished philosophers of science today. The volume will interest professionals and graduate students in biology and the history and philosophy of science. (shrink)

Asumiendo y profundizando la distinción entre Biología Funcional y Biología Evolutiva conforme ha sido propuesta por Ernst Mayr y François Jacob, comparamos la naturaleza de los procedimientos experimentales que se realizan en uno y otro dominio de las ciencias de la vida. En vistas a esto, introducimos ciertas precisiones sobre las nociones de observación y experimento e intentamos elucidar los presupuestos sobre los que se apoya la experimentación en biología funcional. A continuación, presentamos los fundamentos y las particularidades de los (...) procedimientos experimentales desarrollados en el contexto de ese capítulo de la biología evolutiva que es la genética de poblaciones, y analizamos las peculiaridades de las variables sobre la que estos se ejercen. Esto nos permite mostrar la diferencia radical que existe entre operar sobre variables poblacionales y operar sobre variables fisiológicas.In this article we compare the nature of the experimental procedures that are carried out in different areas of biology. This is done by accepting and deepening the distinction between Functional and Evolutive Biology as it is argued for by Ernst Mayr and François Jacob. Keeping this in mind, we introduce some remarks on the notions of observation and experiment and try to clear up the presuppositions on the basis of which experimentation in Functional Biology rest. In the wake of it, we show the foundations and the main aspects of those experimental procedures that are developed in the context of that chapter of Evolutive Biology called Genetics of Populations and analyze the peculiarities of the variables by which those experiments are carried out. This allows us to show the radical difference between working on population and physiological variables. (shrink)