The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology is a book series published by MIT Press

MIT Press

The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...

 and devoted to advances in theoretical biology at large. By promoting the formulation and discussion of new theoretical concepts

Concept

The word concept is used in ordinary language as well as in almost all academic disciplines. Particularly in philosophy, psychology and cognitive sciences the term is much used and much discussed. WordNet defines concept: "conception, construct ". However, the meaning of the term concept is much...

, the series intends to help fill the gaps in our understanding of some of the major open questions of biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, such as the origin and organization of organismal form, the relationship between development and evolution

Evolutionary developmental biology

Evolutionary developmental biology is a field of biology that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to determine the ancestral relationship between them, and to discover how developmental processes evolved...

, and the biological bases of cognition

Cognition

In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...

 and mind

Mind

The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...

.

The Vienna Series grew out of the Altenberg Workshops in Theoretical Biology

Altenberg Workshops in Theoretical Biology

The Altenberg Workshops in Theoretical Biology are expert meetings focused on a key issue of biological theory, hosted by the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research since 1996...

 organized by the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research

Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research

The Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research is an international center for advanced studies in theoretical biology. It supports the articulation, analysis, and integration of biological theories and the exploration of their wider scientific and cultural significance...

 (KLI), an international center for advanced study in Altenberg, near Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. The KLI fosters research projects, workshops, archives, book projects, and the journal Biological Theory

Biological Theory

Biological Theory is a peer-reviewed scientific journal devoted to theoretical advances in the fields of evolution and cognition. It was established in 2005 and is published online and in hard copy by the MIT Press and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research....

, all devoted to aspects of theoretical biology, with an emphasis on integrating the developmental, evolutionary, and cognitive sciences.

Series Editors

Gerd B. Müller

Gerd Müller (theoretical biologist)

Gerd B. Müller is professor at the University of Vienna where he heads the Department of Theoretical Biology and is speaker of the Center for Organismal Systems Biology. His research interests focus on evolutionary innovation, evo-devo theory, and the extension of the Evolutionary Synthesis...

, Günter Wagner, Werner Callebaut

Volumes

• Cognitive Biology. Evolutionary and Developmental Perspectives on Mind, Brain, and Behavior. Luca Tommasi, Mary A. Peterson and Lynn Nadel (Eds.), July 2009.

• Functions in Biological and Artificial Worlds. Comparative Philosophical Perspectives. Ulrich Krohs and Peter Kroes (Eds.), 2009.

• Evolution of Communicative Flexibility. Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability in Human and Animal Communication. D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel (Eds.), 2008.

• Modeling Biology. Structures, Behaviors, Evolution. Manfred D. Laubichler and Gerd B. Müller (Eds.), 2007.

• Biological Emergences. Evolution by Natural Experiment. Robert G. B. Reid, 2007.

• Compositional Evolution. The Impact of Sex, Symbiosis, and Modularity on the Gradualist Framework of Evolution. Richard A. Watson, 2006.

• Modularity. Understanding the Development and Evolution of Natural Complex Systems. Werner Callebaut and Diego Rasskin-Gutman (Eds.), 2005.

• Evolution of Communication Systems. A Comparative Approach. D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel (Eds.), 2004.

• Environment, Development, and Evolution. Toward a Synthesis. Brian K. Hall, Roy D. Pearson and Gerd B. Müller (Eds.), 2004.

• Origination of Organismal Form. Beyond the Gene in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology. Gerd B. Müller and Stuart A. Newman (Eds.), 2003.

• The Evolution of Cognition. Cecilia Heyes and Ludwig Huber (Eds.), 2000.

External links

• The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology