Samir Okasha's Philosophy

Essay Review of Samir Okasha’s Agents and Goals in Evolution

Authors

  • Walter Veit School of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20416/LSRSPS.V8I3.1

Keywords:

agency, evolutionary biology, Samir Okasha

Abstract

This essay offers some reflections on Samir Okasha’s new monograph Agents and Goals in Evolution, his style of doing philosophy, and the broader philosophy of nature project of trying to make sense of agency and rationality as natural phenomena.

References

Ågren, J. A. (2020). Agents and Goals in Evolution. By Samir Okasha. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. $40.00. xiv + 254 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-19-881508-2. 2018. The Quarterly Review of Biology 95(3), 266–266.

https://doi.org/10.1086/710420

Birch, J. (2013). Kin Selection: A Philosophical Analysis. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.

https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198733058.003.0004

Birch, J. (2017). The Philosophy of Social Evolution. Oxford University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198733058.001.0001

Birch, J. (2019). Agents and Goals in Evolution, by Samir Okasha. Mind 128(512), 1408–1416.

https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzy085

Boschiero, L. and K. B. Wray (2019). Exemplifying Metascience. Metascience 28(3), 353–354.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-019-00472-4

Bourrat, P. J.-N. (2014). Reconceptualising Evolution by Natural Selection. PhD thesis, University of Sydney.

Bourrat, P. (forthcoming). Facts, Conventions, and the Levels of Selection. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Callebaut, W. (2011). Beyond Generalized Darwinism. II. More Things in Heaven and Earth. Biological Theory 6(4), 351–365.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-013-0087-1

Dennett, D. C. (2019). Clever Evolution. Metascience 28(3), 355–358.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-019-00450-w

Dennett D.C. (1995). Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. Simon and Schuster, New York.

Earnshaw, E. (2011). Evolution beyond biology: examining the evolutionary economics of Nelson and Winter. Biological Theory 6(4), 301–310.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0050-6

Fisher, R. (1930). The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.27468

Francis, R. C. (2004). Why Men Won’t Ask for Directions. Princeton University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850693

Frey, E. and T. Reichenbach (2011). Bacterial Games. In Principles of Evolution, pp. 297–329. Springer.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18137-5_13

Gardner, A. (2017). The Purpose of Adaptation. Interface Focus 7(5), 20170005.

https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2017.0005

Gardner, A. (2019). The Agent Concept is a Scientific Tool. Metascience 28(3), 359–363.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-019-00451-9

Gayon, J. (2011). Economic Natural Selection: What Concept of Selection? Biological Theory 6(4), 320–325.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0042-6

Gintis, H. (2006). The Foundations of Behavior: The Beliefs, Preferences, and Constraints model. Biological Theory 1(2), 123–127.

https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2006.1.2.123

Godfrey-Smith, P. (1996). Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature. Cambridge University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139172714

Godfrey-Smith, P. (2009). Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection. Oxford University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199552047.001.0001

Godfrey-Smith, P. (2013). On the Relation between Philosophy and Science. Unpublished lecture manuscript from the Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsphilosophie (GWP) Conference, Hannover 2013. Accessed: June 23, 2020.

https://www.petergodfreysmith.com/PhilosophyScience_PGS_2013.pdf

Hagen, E. H., P. J. Watson and P. Hammerstein (2008). Gestures of Despair and Hope: A View on Deliberate Self-Harm from Economics and Evolutionary Biology. Biological Theory 3(2), 123–138.

https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2008.3.2.123

Hammerschmidt, K., C. J. Rose, B. Kerr, and P. B. Rainey (2014). Life Cycles, Fitness Decoupling and the Evolution of Multicellularity. Nature 515(7525), 75–79.

https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13884

Hausman, D. M. (1992). The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics. Cambridge University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511752032

Heintz, C., W. Callebaut, and L. Marengo (2011). How Evolutionary is Evolutionary Economics? Biological Theory 6(4), 291–292.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-013-0088-0

Hodgson, G. M. and T. Knudsen (2011). Generalized Darwinism and Evolutionary Economics: From Ontology to Theory. Biological Theory 6(4), 326–337.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0043-5

Huneman, P. (2020). Essay Review: Exploring the Conceptual Foundations of Post-Hamiltonian Evolutionary Biology—Rationality and Evolution of Social Agents. Acta Biotheoretica 68(4), 453–467.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-020-09380-1

Khalil, E. L. (2010). Are Plants Rational? Biological Theory 5(1), 53–66.

https://doi.org/10.1162/biot_a_00022

Lewens, T. (2019). Neo-Paleyan biology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 76, 101185.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2019.101185

Mäki, U. (1992). On the Method of Isolation in Economics. Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 26, 19–54.

Mesoudi, A. (2007). A Darwinian Theory of Cultural Evolution can Promote an Evolutionary Synthesis for the Social Sciences. Biological Theory 2(3), 263–275.

https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2007.2.3.263

Nelson, R. R. (2011). Human Behavior and Cognition in Evolutionary Economics. Biological Theory 6(4), 293–300.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0036-4

O’Connor, C. (2020). Samir Okasha’s Agents and Goals in Evolution, a Review. Philosophy of Science 88(1):181–184.

https://doi.org/10.1086/710058

Okasha, S. (2006). Evolution and the Levels of Selection. Oxford University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267972.001.0001

Okasha, S. (2012). Social Justice, Genomic Justice and the Veil of Ignorance: Harsanyi Meets Mendel. Economics & Philosophy 28(1), 43–71.

https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267112000119

Okasha, S. (2013). The Origins of Human Cooperation. Biology & Philosophy 28(5), 873–878.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-013-9392-0

Okasha, S. (2016). On the Interpretation of Decision Theory. Economics & Philosophy 32(3), 409–433.

https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267115000346

Okasha, S. (2019). Reply to Dennett, Gardner and Rubin. Metascience 28(3), 373–382.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-019-00453-7

Okasha, S., & Paternotte, C. (2014). Adaptation, Fitness and the Selection–Optimality Links. Biology & Philosophy 29(2), 225–232.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-013-9411-1

Okasha, S. and K. Binmore (Eds.) (2012). Evolution and Rationality. Cambridge University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511792601

Pigliucci, M. (2007). Samir Okasha: Evolution and the Levels of Selection.

Biology & Philosophy 24(4), 551–560.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-007-9101-y

Rainey, P. B. (2007). Unity from Conflict. Nature 446(7136), 616–616.

https://doi.org/10.1038/446616a

Rainey, P. B. and B. Kerr (2010). Cheats as First Propagules: A New Hypothesis for the Evolution of Individuality during the Transition from Single Cells to Multicellularity. Bioessays 32(10), 872–880.

https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201000039

Rainey, P. B. and K. Rainey (2003). Evolution of Cooperation and Conflict in Experimental Bacterial Populations. Nature 425(6953), 72–74.

https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01906

Rosenberg, A. (1976). Microeconomic Laws: A Philosophical Analysis. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Rosenberg, A. (2009). If Economics is a Science, What Kind of a Science is it? In D. Ross and H. Kincaid (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Economics, pp. 55–67. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195189254.003.0003

Ross, D. (2005). Economic Theory and Cognitive Science: Microexplanation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/2600.001.0001

Ross, D. (2007). Game Theory as Mathematics for Biology. Biological Theory 2(1), 104–107.

https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2007.2.1.104

Rubin, H. (2019). The Rationality of Mother Nature. Metascience 28(3), 365–372.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-019-00452-8

Stencel, A. (2020). Samir Okasha, Agents and Goals in Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 254 pp., $40.00. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 42(1), 6.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-020-0301-y

Schlaile, M.P., Veit, W. & Boudry, M. (forthcoming). Memes. In K. Dopfer, R.R. Nelson, J. Potts & A. Pyka (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics. London: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.23408.79364

Sterelny, K. (2003). Thought in a Hostile World: The Evolution of Human Cognition. Wiley-Blackwell.

Tarnita, C. E. (2017). The Ecology and Evolution of Social Behavior in Microbes. Journal of Experimental Biology 220(1), 18–24.

https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.145631

Veit, W. (2019a). Evolution of Multicellularity: Cheating Done Right. Biology & Philosophy 34(3), 34.

https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10539-019-9688-9.

Veit, W. (2019b). Model Pluralism. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 50(2),

–114.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393119894897

Veit, W., Dewhurst, J., Dołega, K., Jones, M., Stanley, S., Frankish, K. & Dennett, D.C. (2019). The Rationale of Rationalization. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 43, e53. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X19002164

Veit, W. & Browning, H. (2020). Perspectival Pluralism for Animal Welfare. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11(9).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00322-9

Veit, W. (2020). Model Anarchism. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.36694.47683

Veit, W. (2021). Review of Nancy Cartwright’s Nature, the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World and How We Can Arrange It Better. Philosophy of Science 88(2).

https://doi.org/10.1086/711505

Veit, W., & Spurrett, D. (2021). Evolving Resolve. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 44, E56.

https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/v3645

Veit, W. & Ney, M. (2021). Metaphors in Arts and Science. European Journal for Philosophy of Science. 11(44).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-021-00351-y

Weibull, J. W. (1995). Evolutionary Game Theory. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Wilson, R. A. (2019). Book Review of Samir Okasha: Agents and Goals in Evolution. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 1(1), 354.

Witt, U. (2011). Economic Behavior—Evolutionary versus Behavioral Perspectives. Biological Theory 6(4), 388–398.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0035-5

Downloads

Published

2021-07-29

How to Cite

Veit, Walter. 2021. “Samir Okasha’s Philosophy: Essay Review of Samir Okasha’s Agents and Goals in Evolution”. Lato Sensu: Revue De La Société De Philosophie Des Sciences 8 (3):1-8. https://doi.org/10.20416/LSRSPS.V8I3.1.

Issue

Section

Essay Review