The series
Foundations for Interdisciplinarity in the Life Sciences: Concise Monographs
Although biologists often use descriptive language that imputes purposiveness to living systems, many have argued that these conceptions are at best heuristic, and at worst egregious errors. Yet there is a growing recognition that biological phenomena suggesting agency, directionality, and goal-directedness demand new or updated conceptual frameworks that can translate into rigorous theoretical models and discriminating empirical tests.
This series introduces and extends scholarship emerging from the novel, interdisciplinary, large-scale Agency, Directionality and Function cohort program that combined philosophers, theoreticians, and experimentalists to address these demands. All books in the series are published open access. Inquiries about proposals for new titles in the series are welcome. Please contact the series editor (Alan Love) or consult the official Springer book series website.
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The cohort program involved more than one hundred researchers engaged in collaborative activities organized around key concepts (e.g., biological function, agency, directionality), modeling practices, and distinctive phenomena at diverse temporal and spatial scales (e.g., cell, behavior, development, ecology, macroevolution).
The book series solidifies the foundations for future interdisciplinary inquiry in the life sciences and catalyzes the emergence of new lines of research based on an increased array of conceptual possibilities, distinctive formal modeling strategies, and next-generation experimental platforms. In bringing these contributions together, the series sets an agenda for the next generation of research, both in biology and in philosophy of science.
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