Covering some of science's most divisive topics, such as philosophical issues in genetics and evolution, the philosophy of biology also encompasses more traditional philosophical questions, such as free will, essentialism, and nature vs nurture. Here, Samir Okasha outlines the core issues with which contemporary philosophy of biology is engaged.

• 1: Why philosophy of biology?


• 2: Evolution and natural selection


• 3: Teleology, function, and purpose


• 4: Species and classification


• 5: Biological individuality


• 6: Genes


• 7: Biology, culture, and society


• Further reading


• Index

Samir Okasha is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Bristol, where he has taught since 2003. He was awarded a European Research Council Advanced Investigator Award in 2012 for a research project entitled 'Darwinism and the Theory of Rational Choice', and he has written over 100 articles in leading journals on diverse topics across philosophy of science and evolutionary biology. He is also the author of several books, including Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2002), and Evolution and the Levels of Selection (OUP, 2006), for which he received the Lakatos Award.