Bücher veröffentlicht von Princeton University Press

Outlining the competing theories in the history of political and moral philosophy, this work attempts to understand and solve the ancient problem of political obligation.

A plethora of different theories, models, and concepts make up the field of community ecology. Amid this vast body of work, is it possible to build one general theory of ecological communities? What other scientific areas might serve as a guiding framework? As it turns out, the core focus of community ecology-understanding patterns of diversity and composition of biological variants across space and time-is shared by evolutionary biology and its very coherent conceptual framework, population genetics theory. The Theory of Ecological Communities takes this as a starting point to pull together community ecology's various perspectives into a more unified whole.Mark Vellend builds a theory of ecological communities based on four overarching processes: selection among species, drift, dispersal, and speciation. These are analogues of the four central processes in population genetics theory-selection within species, drift, gene flow, and mutation-and together they subsume almost all of the many dozens of more specific models built to describe the dynamics of communities of interacting species. The result is a theory that allows the effects of many low-level processes, such as competition, facilitation, predation, disturbance, stress, succession, colonization, and local extinction to be understood as the underpinnings of high-level processes with widely applicable consequences for ecological communities.Reframing the numerous existing ideas in community ecology, The Theory of Ecological Communities provides a new way for thinking about biological composition and diversity.

The most up-to-date and authoritative resource on the biology and evolution of solitary bees which draws on new research to provide a comprehensive and authoritative overview of solitary bee biology, offering an unparalleled look at these remarkable insects.

First published in 1998, this text became an immediate landmark in the debate over affirmative action in America. It grounded a contentious subject in concrete data at a time when arguments surrounding it were characterized more by emotion than evidence. It continues to present the most compelling data available about the effects of affirmative action.

Revealing bold new ways to structure markets for the good of everyone, this book shows how the emancipatory force of genuinely open, free, and competitive markets can reawaken the dormant 19th-century spirit of liberal reform and lead to greater equality, prosperity, and cooperation.

A celebration of the American trial as a great cultural achievement, this work explores how these legal proceedings bring about justice. It reminds us that the trial is not confined to the impartial application of legal rules to factual findings. It explores the narrative structure of the trial, beginning with the lawyers' opening statements.

The self-sacrifice of sterile workers in ant colonies has been particularly difficult for evolutionary biologists to explain. This title presents an overview of the scientific knowledge about social evolution in ants. It shows how studies on ants have contributed to an understanding of many fundamental topics in behavioral ecology.