Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  • Cited by 42
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
July 2009
Print publication year:
2004
Online ISBN:
9780511498473

Book description

This book is intended to help transform epistemology - the traditional study of knowledge - into a rigorous discipline by removing conceptual roadblocks and developing formal tools required for a fully naturalized epistemology. The evolutionary approach which Harms favours begins with the common observation that if our senses and reasoning were not reliable, then natural selection would have eliminated them long ago. The challenge for some time has been how to transform these informal musings about evolutionary epistemology into a rigorous theoretical discipline capable of complementing current scientific studies of the evolution of cognition with a philosophically defensible account of meaning and justification.

Reviews

‘I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in pursuing the development of a biologically based naturalistic account of knowledge and the evolution of cognitive mechanisms. It is not an easy read but will more than repay the careful reader with suggestive insights and, I believe, a unique slant on the host of problems that we have inherited from the work of Donald Campbell.’

Michael Bradie - Bowling Green State University

‘This book contains original insights about information transmission and the evolution of meaning. After you read Part III the is/ought question will never look the same.’

Brian Skyrms - University of California, Irvine

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
×

Contents

References
Reference
Reference
Alexander, R. D. (1990). “Epigenetic Rules and Darwinian Algorithms: The Adaptive Study of Learning and Development.” Ethology and Sociology 11: 241–303
Aunger, R. (2000). Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science. New York: Oxford University Press
Axelrod, R. (1984). The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books
Barrett, M., and Sober, E. (1992). “Is Entropy Relevant to the Asymmetry Between Retrodiction and Prediction?British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 43: 141–60
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. London: Jason Aronson
Blackmore, S. (1999). The Meme Machine. New York: Oxford University Press
Bonner, J. T. (1980). The Evolution of Culture in Animals. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Börgers, T., and Sarin, R. (1994). “Learning through Reinforcement and Replicator Dynamics.” Börgers: University College, London; Sarin: Texas A & M University
Boyd, R., and Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the Evolutionary Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Brodie, R. (1996). Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme. Seattle: Integral Press
Brooks, D. R., and Wiley, E. O. (1988). Evolution as Entropy: Toward a Unified Theory of Biology. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Campbell, D. T. ([1974] 1987). “Evolutionary Epistemology.” In Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge, G. Radnitzky and W. W. I. Bartley, eds., 47–89. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court
Cavalli-Svorza, L. L., and Feldman, M. W. (1981). Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach. Princeton University Press
Chalmers, D. J. (1996). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York: Oxford University Press
Cheney, D. L., and Seyfarth, R. M. (1990). How Monkeys See the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Dahlbom, B. (1993). Dennett and His Critics. Oxford: Blackwell
Darwall, S., Gibbard, A., and Railton, P. (1992). “Toward Fin de Siecle Ethics: Some Trends.” The Philosophical Review 101: 115–89
Darwin, C. ([1859] 1964). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, E. Mayr, ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press
Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype. Oxford: W. H. Freeman
Dawkins, R. (1986). The Blind Watchmaker. Longman Scientific & Technical
Dawkins, R. ([1976] 1989). The Selfish Gene, New Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Dawkins, R. (1993). “Viruses of the Mind”. Journal: Free Enquiry, Summer 1993, 34–41
Deacon, T. W. (1997). The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain. New York: W. W. Norton
Dennett, D. C. (1987). The Intentional Stance. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Dennett, D. C. (1990). “Memes and the Exploitation of the Imagination.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 48: 127–35
Dennett, D. C. (1991). Consciousness Explained. Boston: Little, Brown
Dennett, D. C. (1996). Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. New York: Simon & Schuster
Dobzhansky, T. (1941). Genetics and the Origin of Species. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press
Dretske, F. (1981). Knowledge and the Flow of Information. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Dretske, F. (1986). “Misinformation.” In Belief: Form, Content, and Function, R. Bogdan, ed., pp. 17–36. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Dretske, F. (1988). Explaining Behavior: Reasons in a World of Causes. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Dretske, F. (1995). Naturalizing the Mind. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Fisher, R. (1930). The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Gettier, E. (1963). “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?Analysis 23: 121–3
Ghiselin, M. (1997). Metaphysics and the Origin of Species. Albany: State University of New York Press
Godfrey-Smith, P. (1991). “Signal, Decision, Action.” The Journal of Philosophy 88: 709–22
Godfrey-Smith, P. (1994). “A Modern History Theory of Functions.” Nous 28: 344–62
Godfrey-Smith, P. (1996). Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature. Cambridge University Press
Gould, S. J., and Lewontin, R. C. (1978). “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Program.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 205: 581–98
Hahlweg, K., and Hooker, C. A. (1989). “Evolutionary Epistemology and the Philosophy of Science.” In Issues in Evolutionary Epistemology, K. Halweg and C. A. Hooker eds., 21–150. Albany, NY: SUNY
Hamilton, W. D. (1964). “The Genetical Evolution of Social Behavior I & II.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 7: 1–52
Harms, W. (1996a). “Population Epistemology: Information Flow in Evolutionary Processes.” Ph. D. dissertation. University of California, Irvine
Harms, W. (1996b). “Cultural Evolution and the Variable Phenotype.” Biology and Philosophy 11: 357–75
Harms, W. (1998). “The Use of Information Theory in Epistemology.” Philosophy of Science 65: 472–501
Hartley, R. (1928). “Transmission of Information.” Bell System Technical Journal 7: 535–68
Hazelbauer, G. L., Berg, H. C., and Matsumura, P. (1993). “Bacterial Motility and Signal Transduction.” Cell 73: 15–22
Heylighen, F. (1998). “The Memetics Community Is Coming of Age”. Journal of Memetics 2(2): [editorial]
Hofbauer, J., and Sigmund, K. (1988). The Theory of Evolution and Dynamical Systems. Cambridge University Press
Holland, J. H. ([1975] 1992). Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Horgan, T., and Timmons, M. (1992). “Troubles on Moral Twin Earth: Moral Queerness Revisited.” Synthese 92: 221–60
Hull, D. (1988a). Science as a Process. University of Chicago Press
Hull, D. (1988b). “A Period of Development: A Response.” Biology and Philosophy 3: 241–63
Hull, D. (1992). “An Evolutionary Account of Science: A Response to Rosenberg's Critical Notice.” Biology and Philosophy 7: 229–36
Hull, D. (2001). Science and Selection: Essays on Biological Evolution and the Philosophy of Science. Cambridge studies in Philosophy and Biology, New York: Cambridge University Press
Hume, D. ([1748] 1977). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Press
Hume, D. ([1739] 1978). A Treatise of Human Nature. Vol. 2. L. Selby-Biggs, ed. Oxford
Jackson, F. (1986). “What Mary Didn't Know.” Philosophical Quarterly 32: 291–95
Kapur, J. (1994). Measures of Information and Their Applications. New York: John Wiley and Sons
Kim, J. (1988). “What Is ‘Naturalized Epistemology’?” In Naturalizing Epistemology, Kornblith, ed., pp. 33–56. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Kitcher, P. (1985). Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Kornblith, H. (1994). Naturalizing Epistemology. Cambridge, Mass.: Reprinted in MIT Press
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). Foundations of the Unity of Science. Vol. 2, No. 2: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd ed. International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, vol. 2, no. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Lamb, J. M., and Wells, H. (1995). “Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Use of Flower Form in Making Foraging Choices.” Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 68: 388–98
Lewis, D. (1969). Convention. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Lewontin, R. J. (1970). “The Units of Selection.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1: 1–18
Lynch, A. (1996). Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads through Society. New York: Basic Books
Lynch, A., and Baker, A. J. (1993). “A Population Memetics Approach to Cultural Evolution in Chaffinch Song: Meme Diversity Within Populations.” The American Naturalist 141: 597–620
Lynch, A., and Baker, A. J. (1994). “A Population Memetics Approach to Cultural Evolution in Chaffinch Song: Differentiation Among Populations.” Evolution 48: 351–59
Lynch, A., Plunkett, G. M., Baker, A. J., and Jenkins, P. F. (1989). “A Model of Cultural Evolution of Chaffinch Song Derived from the Meme Concept.” The American Naturalist 133: 634–53
Manson, M. D. (1990). “Introduction to Bacterial Motility and Chemotaxix.” Journal of Chemical Ecology 16: 107–113
Smith, Maynard J., and Price, G. R. (1973). “The Logic of Animal Conflict.” Nature146: 15–18
Millikan, R. G. (1984). Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories: New Foundations for Realism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Millikan, R. G. (1989). “BiosemanticsJournal of Philosophy 86: 288–302
Millikan, R. G. (1990). “Compare and Contrast Dretske, Fodor, and Millikan on Teleosemantics.” Philosophical Topics 18: 151–61
Millikan, R. G. (1993). White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Millikan, R. G. (1996). “Pushmi-Pullyu Representations.” In Mind and Morals: Essays on Cognitive Science and Ethics, L. May, M. Friedman, and A. Clark, eds. 145–61. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Mitchell, M. (1996). An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Montague, P. R., Dayan, P., Person, C., and Sejnowski, T. J. (1995). “Bee Foraging in Uncertain Environments Using Predictive Hebbian Learning.” Nature 377: 725–28
Montague, P. R., Dayan, P., and Sejnowski, T. J. (1996). “A Framework for Mensencephalic Dopamine Systems Based on Predictive Hebbian Learning.” Journal of Neuroscience 16: 1936–47
Moore, G. E. (1903). Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Moore, G. E. (1962). Philosophical Papers. New York: Collier
Nagel, T. (1974). “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?Philosophical Review. ⅬXXXIII, 4: 435–50
Nyquist, H. (1924). “Certain Factors Affecting Telegraph Speed”. Bell System Technical Journal, p. 324, April 1924
Petrikin, J., and Wells, H. (1995). “Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Use of Flower Pigment Patterns in Making Foraging Choices.” Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 68: 377–87
Pierce, J. R. ([1961] 1980). An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals, and Noise. New York: Dover
Quine, W. (1969). “Epistemology Naturalized.” In: Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, 69–90. New York: Columbia University Press
Quine, W. (1969). “Natural Kinds.” In Ontological Relativity and Other Essays. New York: Columbia University Press. 114–38
Raff, R. A. (1996). The Shape of Life: Genes, Development, and the Evolution of Animal Form. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Real, L. A. (1991). “Animal Choice Behavior and the Evolution of Cognitive Architecture.” Science 253: 980–6
Real, L. A. (1992). “Information Processing and the Evolutionary Ecology of Cognitive Architecture.” The American Naturalist 140: S108–S45
Rorty, R. (1979). Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Rosenberg, A. (1992). “Selection and Science: Critical Notice of David Hull's Science as a Process.” Biology and Philosophy 7: 217–28
Schuster, P., and Sigmund, K. (1983). “Replicator Dynamics.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 100: 533–8
Shannon, C. E. (1948). “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” The Bell System Technical Journal 27: 379–423, 623–56
Shannon, C. E. (1993). Claude Elwood Shannon: Collected Papers, N. Sloane and A. Wyner, eds. New York: IEEE Press
Shannon, C. E., and Weaver, W. (1949). The Mathematical Theory of Communication. University of Illinois Press
Siegel, S. (1961). “Decision Making and Learning Under Varying Conditions of Reinforcement.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 89: 752–66
Skyrms, B. (1994). The Evolution of an Anomaly. Technical Report MBS 94–22. Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Irvine
Skyrms, B. (1996). Evolution of the Social Contract. Cambridge University Press
Sober, E. (1984). The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Sober, E. (1991). “Temporally Asymmetric Inference in a Markov Process.” Philosophy of Science 58: 398–410
Sober, E., and Barrett, M. (1992). “Conjunctive Forks and Temporally Asymmetric Inference.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 70: 1–23
Sober, E., and Wilson, D. S. (1998). Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell
Tomasello, M. (1999). The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge, Mass.: Havard University Press
Trivers, R. L. (1971). “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 46: 35–57
Waddington, C. H. (1975). “Evolution and Epistemology.” In The Evolution of an Evolutionist, 35–6. Edinburgh University Press
Weber, B. H., Depew, D. J., and Smith, J. D. (1988). Entropy, Information, and Evolution: New Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Wheeler, J. A. (1994). “It from Bit.” In At Home in the Universe, 295–312. Woodbury, N.Y.: American Institute of Physics Press
Wicken, J. S. (1987). Evolution, Thermodynamics, and Information: Extending the Darwinian Program. New York: Oxford University Press
Wicken, J. S. (1988). “Thermodynamics, Evolution, and Emergence: Ingredients for a New Synthesis.” In Entropy, Information, and Evolution, B. Weber, D. Depew, and J. Smith eds. 139–69. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Wiener, N. ([1948] 1961). Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. 2nd ed. MIT Press
Williams, G. C. (1966). Adaptation and Natural Selection. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Wilson, E. O. (1975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Wilson, E. O. (1979). On Human Nature. New York: Bantam
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical Investigations. New York: Macmillan Company
Wright, S. (1932). “The Roles of Mutation, Inbreeding, Crossbreeding, and Selection in Evolution.” Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics 1: 356–66
Wright, S. (1986). Evolution: Selected Papers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Zurek, W. H., ed. (1990). Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information: Proceedings of the SFI Workshop. Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, vol. VIII. Redwood City, Calif.: Addison-Wesley

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.