Understanding Natural Selection (Understanding Life) - Softcover

Ruse, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1009088327 ISBN 13: 9781009088329

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2023

Synopsis

Natural selection, as introduced by Charles Darwin in the Origin of Species (1859), has always been a topic of great conceptual and empirical interest. This book puts Darwin's theory of evolution in historical context showing that, in important respects, his central mechanism of natural selection gives the clue to understanding the nature of organisms. Natural selection has important implications, not just for the understanding of life's history – single-celled organism to man – but also for our understanding of contemporary social norms, as well as the nature of religious belief. The book is written in clear, non-technical language, appealing not just to philosophers, historians, and biologists, but also to general readers who find thinking about important issues both challenging and exciting.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Ruse is Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, Ontario. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Gifford Lecturer, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and the recipient of four honorary degrees. He is the author/editor of over sixty books, including The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2013); The Gaia Hypothesis: Life on a Pagan Planet (University of Chicago Press, 2013); Darwinism as Religion: What Literature Tells Us about Evolution (Oxford University Press, 2016), and The Cambridge History of Atheism (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2023
• ISBN 10: 1009088327
• ISBN 13: 9781009088329
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 188