Abstract :
A consensus exists among contemporary philosophers of biology about the history of
their field. According to the received view, mainstream philosophy of science in the
1930s, 40s, and 50s focused on physics and general epistemology, neglecting analyses
of the ‘special sciences’, including biology. The subdiscipline of philosophy of biology
emerged (and could only have emerged) after the decline of logical positivism in the
1960s and 70s. In this article, I present bibliometric data from four major philosophy
of science journals (Erkenntnis, Philosophy of Science, Synthese, and the British Journal
for the Philosophy of Science), covering 1930–59, which challenge this view.
