Elliott Sober

Elliott Sober Reuben ( born June 6, 1948 in Baltimore ) is an American philosopher. He is Hans Reichenbach Professor and William F. Vilas Research Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Wisconsin.

Scientific work

Sober is known for his work in the philosophy of biology and general philosophy of science. He taught for a year at Stanford University and was a regular visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

His thesis (Ph. D. ) in philosophy, he returned to Harvard with Hilary Putnam (even a student Hans Reichenbach's ) on. In addition, his work is heavily influenced by the work of the biologist Richard Lewontin. With David Sloan Wilson him a close cooperation and several publications. How these biologists is Sober a prominent and sharp critic of the idea of intelligent design, in particular, it has attacked the empirical non- verifiability.

A major area of his research is the guiding principle of " parsimony " (see Occam's Razor ) in natural science and in connection with the review of theories in the philosophy of science. In its publication " Simplicity" from 1975 followed on this issue a number of influential publications in major philosophical journals.

The main theme of his cooperation with D. S. Wilson is justified in view of the important role of group selection and reciprocal altruism less the classical definition, the evolution of cooperation, the Sober and Wilson essentially.

Book publications

  • Simplicity. Oxford University Press, 1975, ISBN 0 - 19-824407 -X. ( = PhD dissertation, Harvard 1974)
  • (Editor) Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology: An Anthology. Bradford / MIT Press, 1984; 2nd Edition, 1993, ISBN 0-262-19549-6.
  • Core Questions in Philosophy: A Text with Readings. Macmillan, 1990; 2nd edition Prentice Hall 1994; 3rd edition Prentice Hall 2001, ISBN 0-13-083537-4.
  • The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus. Bradford / MIT Press, 1984; 2nd edition, University of Chicago Press, 1993, ISBN 0-262-19232-2.
  • Reconstructing the Past: Parsimony, Evolution, and Inference. Bradford / MIT Press, 1988, ISBN 0-262-19273- X.
  • ( with Erik O. Wright and Andrew Levine ) Reconstructing Marxism: Essays on Explanation and the Theory of History. Verso Press, 1992, ISBN 0-86091-342-2.
  • Philosophy of Biology. Westview Press ( UK: Oxford University Press), 1993; 2nd edition 1999, ISBN 0-8133-0785-6.
  • From a Biological Point of View: Essays in Evolutionary Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-521-47184-2.
  • ( with David S. Wilson) Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Harvard University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-674-93047-9.
  • ( Edited by Steven Orzack ) Adaptationism and Optimality. Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 0 - 521-59166 -X.
  • Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science. Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 0-521-69274-1.
William Freeman Vilas University of Wisconsin System Empirical research Integrated Authority File
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