DimensionsofDarwinism:ThemesandCounterthemesinTwentieth-CenturyEvolutionaryTheory

Originallypublishedinpaperbackin1986,theessaysinthisbookdiscussquestionsaboutthegrowthandconceptualstructureofthemodernevolutionarysynthesis,or'neo-Darwinism'.Writtenbybiologists,historiansandphilosophers,thecollectionprovidesapenetratinganalysisofthedevelopment,meaningandproblemsoftwentieth-centuryevolutionarytheory.PartIincludesdiscussionoftheroleofeugenicsinshapingthebiologicalinterestsofR.A.Fisher;theabandonmentofLamarckism;theinfluenceofsystematicsandtheconceptsofadaptationandrandomdriftinthedevelopmentofSewallWright'stheory;andexplanationofhowthesynthesis'hardened'inthedecadesfollowingitsoriginalpresentation.PartIIexaminesthehistoryofmimetictheoryasacasestudyinevolutionarythought,whilePartIIIintroducesthereadertosomeaspectsoftheGermantradition.Finally,PartIVaddressesthedebatesthatexistedaroundthetimeofpublication.