Evolutionary Analogies: Is the Process of Scientific Change Analogous to the Organic Change?

'Advocates of the evolutionary analogy claim that mechanisms governing scientific change are analogous to those at work in organic evolution above all, natural selection. By referring to the works of the most influential proponents of evolutionary analogies (Toulmin, Campbell, Hull and, most notably, Kuhn) the authors discuss whether and to what extent their use of the analogy is appropriate. A careful and often illuminating perusal of the theoretical scope of the terms employed, as well as of the varying contexts within which the analogy is appealed to in contemporary debates, leads to the conclusion that such general theories of selective processes are either too sketchy or eventually not persuasive, if not altogether based on flawed views of evolutionary biology. By clarifying what is at stake, the analysis carried out in the book sheds new light on one of the dominant theories of scientific progress. It also invites criticism, of course but that is the very fuel of philosophical confrontation'. Stefano Gattei, IMT Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca