The Species Problem

The main goal of Richard Richards's The Species Problem is "a comprehensive philosophical understanding of the species problem: the use of multiple and inconsistent species concepts that group and divide biodiversity in conflicting ways" (205). The goal of comprehensiveness leads Richards into a wide-ranging book with contributions to ancient philosophy, the history of biology, Darwin scholarship, the philosophy of biology, metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and other subdisciplines. While I do not agree with the main conclusion of the book, I do believe that Richards has succeeded in providing helpful introductions to a number of different topics and persuasively arguing that these topics are intimately related.