Science, Politics, and Evolution

Elisabeth A. Lloyd is Arnold and Maxine Tanis Chair of History and Philosophy of Science and Professor of Biology at Indiana University and an Affiliated Faculty Scholar at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. She is the author of The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory, Keywords in Evolutionary Biology, and most recently, The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution.

• 1. The nature of Darwin's support for the theory of natural selection; 2. A semantic approach to the structure of population genetics; 3. Confirmation of evolutionary and ecological models; 4. Species selections on variability; 5. An open letter to Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson, regarding their book, Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior; 6. Problems with pluralism; 7. Normality and variation: the human genome project and the ideal human type; 8. Evolutionary psychology: the burdens of proof; 9. Objectivity and the double standard for feminist epistemologies; 10. Science and anti-science: objectivity and its real enemies; 11. Pre-theoretical assumptions in evolutionary explanations of female sexuality.

"Although I do not agree with some of the conclusions the author draws, she certainly provides and interesting perspective and illustrates the importance of being very clear about the nature of the debate and our assumptions when comparing theory and data." Suzanne H. Alonzo, The Quarterly Review of Biology