Species is a benchmark exploration and clarification of a concept fundamental to the past, present, and future of the natural sciences. In this edition, a section is added on the debate over species since the time of the New Synthesis, and brings the book up to date.

John Wilkins PhD is Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Research Fellow at the Ronin Institute, Monclair, NJ. He has taught at the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, and the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Species: A History of the Idea (2009), and Defining Species (2009), co-author of The Nature of Classification (2013), and edited Intelligent Design and Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2010). He has published on species, the evolution of religion, cognition, and the history and philosophy of science. He lives in Melbourne Australia.

Prologue: The Received View. The failure of the Received View. The historical development of "species." The classical era: Science by division. The medieval bridge. Species and the birth of modern science. The Noah's Ark part is new, based on my later research. The nineteenth century, a period of change. Darwin and the Darwinians. Non-Darwinian ideas after Darwin. The Synthesis and species. Modern debates. Philosophical treatments.