The Interpretation of Development and Heredity: A Study in Biological Method.

[viii], 312 pp. Original cloth. Very Good. With: card inscribed and initialed by Russell and dated 3.XI.33 affixed to rear pastedown. "Historically speaking, biologists and philosophers of biology paid little attention to Interpretation despite favorable reviews shortly after publication in both Nature and The American Journal of Sociology. The possible reasons for this neglect are numerous, though historian of biology Nils Roll-Hansen argues that this is likely because mechanistic biology continued to thrive throughout the central decades of the twentieth century despite contests from Russell, Joseph Woodger, and others. Recently, Russell’s Interpretation has received attention from philosopher of biology Jason Scott Robert as an element of the philosophical foundation of modern epigenetic and developmental research. Certainly Interpretation is a valuable source for understanding the historical context of mid-twentieth-century critical analysis of mechanistic biology and arguments for the organismal perspective in biology" (Mark A. Ulett, "The Interpretation of Development and Heredity (1930), by Edward Stuart Russell", Arizona State University Embryo Project Encyclopedia, 2011).…