In evolution thermodynamics, David Joseph Depew (1942-) is an American science philosopher noted for a number of articles and books on the overlap of thermodynamics, evolution, and philosophy.
Overview
In 1996, Depew, in his Darwinism Evolving, co-authored and Bruce Weber, according to a review by blogger Jeremy Lent, used a good amount of physics and thermodynamics in an attempt to update the Darwin-view of evolution theory, citing the works of those as Karl Marx, Ronald Fisher, Alfred Lotka, Erwin Schrodinger, Ilya Prigogine, among others. [1]
Depew seems to have also written on Aristotle and the various pre-Darwin theories of evolution.
Education
Depew completed his BA in (1965) at St. Mary’s College of California, and his MA in 1972 and PhD in 1878, the latter with a thesis on “Narration and Explanation in History”, both at the University of California, San Diego. Currently Depew is professor emeritus of the University of Iowa.
References
1. (a) Depew, David J. and Weber, Bruce H. (1996). Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection. MIT Press.
(b) Lent, Jeremy. (2010). “Crossing the Complexity Barrier: Book Review: Darwinism Evolving”, Finding the Li.
Further reading
● Depew, David J. (1986). “Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics and Evolution: A Philosophical Perspective”, Philosophica, 37(1):27-58.
● Weber, Bruce H., Depew, David J., Smith, James D. (1988). Entropy, Information, and Evolution: New Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution. MIT Press.
● Depew, David. (2003). “From Heat Engines to Digital Printouts: a Tropology of the Organism from the Victorian Era to the Human Genome Project”, in: L. Rabinovitz (ed.), Memory Bytes: History, Technology, and Digital Culture (pgs. 47-75). Duke University Press.
External links
● David J. Depew (faculty) – University of Iowa.
● David Depew – Curriculum vitae.
● Depew, David J. (1942-) – WorldCat Identities.
