Samir Okasha, Professor of Philosophy of Science, University of Bristol

Samir Okasha offers a critical study of agential thinking in biology, where evolved organisms are seen as agents pursuing a goal. He examines the justification for transposing concepts from rational humans to the biological world, and considers whether agential thinking is mere anthropomorphism or plays a more intellectual role in the science.

• Part I: Agency in Evolutionary Biology


• 1: Agential Thinking and its Rationale


• 2: Genes and Groups as Agents


• Part II: The Goal of Fitness Maximization


• 3: Wright s Adaptive Landscape, Fisher s Fundamental Theorem


• 4: Grafen s Formal Darwinism, Adaptive Dynamics


• 5: Social Evolution, Hamilton s Rule, Inclusive Fitness


• Part III: Rationality meets Evolution


• 6: The Evolution-Rationality Connection


• 7: Can Adaptiveness and Rationality Part Ways?


• 8: Risk, Rational Choice and Evolution


• Final Thoughts