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

Samir Okasha is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Bristol, where he has worked since 2003. He previously held positions at the University of York, LSE, and the National University of Mexico. Okasha is the author of numerous articles on topics in philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, evolutionary theory, and epistemology. His book Evolution and the Levels of Selection (OUP 2006) was awarded the Lakatos Prize for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science. He is currently President of the European Philosophy of Science Association.