The philosophy of biology

One of the earliest sustained attempts to apply philosophical rigor to biological science. James Johnstone tackles the fundamental questions that biology cannot escape: what exactly is life, how does consciousness emerge from matter, and what does perception tell us about the relationship between mind and organism? Written in the early twentieth century when biology was still wrestling with Darwin's revolution, Johnstone argues that scientific theories carry philosophical assumptions whether we acknowledge them or not, and that biology must reckon with its own foundations if it is to truly understand living systems. He pushes back against crude mechanism, suggesting that life may require conceptual tools that physics alone cannot provide. This book helped establish philosophy of biology as a discipline, and its questions about the nature of life and mind remain startlingly relevant today.