The Philosophy of Ecology: An Introduction

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Why Philosophy of Ecology?
1 The Ecological Niche
2 Distinctively Ecological Laws and the Reality of Biological Communities
3 The Balance of Nature
4 Modeling in Ecology: Representation and Reduction
5 Biodiversity
6 Progress in Applied Ecology
7 Fact and Value in Applied Ecology

"In his inimitable way, G. E. Hutchinson (1965) coined the phrase "the ecological theater and the evolutionary play." At the time, the metaphor complemented other attempts to fortify the value of the synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwin's theory (achieved just a few decades earlier) against the perceived hegemonic zeal of the new molecular and cellular approaches in biology (see Wilson 1994, Dietrich 1998). But the insight behind Hutchinson's metaphor extends far beyond just the Modern Synthesis. It captures the indispensable contribution both ecology and evolutionary science make to understanding the biological world. Both concern vast albeit overlapping portions of that world, in both space and time, and alone neither can supply a complete accounting of it without the other. Just as ecological and evolutionary sciences are at the core of biology, philosophy of evolutionary biology and ecology are at the core of philosophy of biology. This book is an introduction to philosophy of ecology. Beyond its ambition to explain vast portions of the biological world, and the crucial light it sheds on evolutionary dynamics, ecology has likely never been more important as a science, and its philosophy more important to society. Climate change, habitat degradation, biodiversity loss, and numerous other looming environmental challenges make ecology and the interrelated environmental sciences that help us understand the threats and identify feasible solutions all the more critical. When ecology is applied and its insights marshalled to address these problems, and to guide environmental policy, interesting philosophical issues emerge. This book considers a few such issues in its final chapters"-- Provided by publisher.