Holism & Reductionism in Biology & Ecology: The Mutual Dependence of Higher & Lower Level Research Programmes Book

Preface. Introduction. Part 1: Reduction and co-operation in biology. 1. Holism and reductionism. 2. Reduction of laws and theories. 3. Reduction of concepts. 4. Emergence, reduction and co-operating research programmes. 5. Co-operating research programmes: reduction of the Bohr effect. 6. Functional explanations in biology. Part 2: Reduction and co-operation in ecology. 7. The reduction problem in ecology. 8. Ecological communities: conceptual problems and definition. 9. The distinction between habitat and niche. 10. The reduction of the Lotka/Volterra competition model to modern niche theory. 11. Co-operation in island biogeography. 12. The inhibitory effect of the holism-reductionism dispute: a controversy in island biogeography and its solution. Epilogue. Notes. References. Name Index.