A Study On Devitt's Biological Essentialism

Whether there is an essence of biological species is an important issue in the study of contemporary philosophy of biology and philosophy of science.The traditional view since Aristotle holds that species have essence and that each is made up of similar individuals with a common essence,with clear boundaries between different species.However,most contemporary biological philosophers think this view is wrong because it is incompatible with Darwinian evolution.According to Darwinian evolution,species are variable and there are no essential differences or boundaries between species.Facing the challenge of evolution theory,the famous contemporary philosopher Devitt tried to defend the biological essentialism.His biological essentialism has not only attracted a lot of attention,but also provided important enlightenment for us to understand the current debate about the nature of species.In the second chapter,the main ideas and difficulties of traditional biological essentialism are introduced,and the responses of contemporary philosophers to these difficulties are also given.Traditional biological essentialism holds that species have essence,and this essence is an intrinsic attribute or set of attributes,which is necessary and sufficient for the membership of species.Evolution says that due to the variability of species,we cannot find any such essential properties in living organisms.Therefore,some philosophers reject any form of species essentialism,while others try to redefine essence and propose various forms of neo-biological essentialism on this basis.The third chapter mainly introduces Devitt's biological essentialism thought.First of all,Devitt rejects anti-essentialism of species.He insists that species have an intrinsic nature.He offers two arguments in direct defense of intrinsic biological essentialism: first,the development of genetic technology promises to discover the intrinsic nature of species;The second is that biological generalization about species requires intrinsic nature.Secondly,Devitt criticizes the current prevailing relation or historical essentialism,arguing that external relation or historical essence can neither explain the typical characteristics of a member of a species nor whether an organism is a member of a species,but both appeal to internal essence.Finally,he believes that the essence of species contains both internal essence and external relationship or historical essence,so his biological essentialism is the integration of the relationship between the intrinsic essence and the partial or historical essence.The last chapter analyzes the merits and demerits of Devitt's mixed essentialism and tries to defend the traditional essentialism.Devitt's mixed essentialism reduces the requirement of essence,so that it can accommodate more types of biological species.In addition,he absorbs relationship or historical attributes into the essence of biological species,so that his biological essentialism can be reconciled with the evolution theory,thus avoiding the dilemma of traditional biological essentialism.Since the nature of biological species is a mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic attributes,Devitt needs to point out which attribute takes precedence in the process of playing the role of essence,and his diversification of the concept of essence actually reduces the role of essence so that essence cannot play the explanatory function of traditional essence.In the end,traditional essentialism is still the best theory to explain biological species and other biological species.