The book sets out a new logic of rules, developed to demonstrate how such a logic can contribute to the clarification of historical questions about social rules. The authors illustrate applications of this new logic in their extensive treatments of a variety of accounts of social changes, analysing in these examples the content of particular social rules and the course of changes in them.

What is evolution? Few ideas are more controversial - and more misunderstood - than the biological theory of evolution. But it's also the case that, as a great scientist once said, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." So, if students want to truly understand biology in all of its forms, they will need to understand what evolution - the scientific idea - is. This volume in the Greenwood Guides to Great Ideas in Science series enables the reader to learn what evolution is by charting the course of the ideas of biological change from the ancient time to the present. Accessible and comprehensive, Evolution: A Historical Perspective shows how the great thinkers of the past and present mean when they say something "evolved." Evolution: A Historical Perspective discusses the main components that make evolution such a singularly powerful scientific theory: BLEarly attempts at explaining biological change, and scientific attempts to explain discoveries about life on earth Charles Darwin's introduction of natural selection in The Origin of Species, Gregor Mendel's gene, and the merging of modern genetics and evolution in the "Modern Synthesis" BLJames Watson and Francis Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA, and the biochemical explanation for biological change The volume includes a glossary, a timeline of events, and a bibliography of works that will be useful in further research.

The most pressing problems facing humanity today - over-population, energy shortages, climate change, soil erosion, species extinctions, the risk of epidemic disease, the threat of warfare that could destroy all the hard-won gains of civilization, and even the recent fibrillations of the stock market - are all ecological or have a large ecological component. in this volume philosophers turn their attention to understanding the science of ecology and its huge implications for the human project.
To get the application of ecology to policy or other practical concerns right, humanity needs a clear and disinterested philosophical understanding of ecology which can help identify the practical lessons of science. Conversely, the urgent practical demands humanity faces today cannot help but direct scientific and philosophical investigation toward the basis of those ecological challenges that threaten human survival. This book will help to fuel the timely renaissance of interest in philosophy of ecology that is now occurring in the philosophical profession.
Provides a bridge between philosophy and current scientific findingsCovers theory and applicationsEncourages multi-disciplinary dialogue"