Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

The 2nd edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. Art and illustrations have been substantially improved, and the textbook features additional assessments and related resources.

I. The Study of Life
II. The Chemical Foundation of Life
III. Biological Macromolecules
IV. Cell Structure
V. Structure and Function of Plasma Membranes
VI. Metabolism
VII. Cellular Respiration
VIII. Photosynthesis
IX. Cell Communication
X. Cell Reproduction
XI. Meiosis and Sexual Reproduction
XII. Mendel's Experiments and Heredity
XIII. Modern Understandings of Inheritance
XIV. DNA Structure and Function
XV. Genes and Proteins
XVI. Gene Expression
XVII. Ethics and Societal Responsibility

A systematic study of the structure, function, ecology and evolution or organisms including bacteria, protists, fungi, plants and animals.
Chapter I. Evolution and the Origin of Species
Chapter II. The Evolution of Populations
Chapter III. Viruses
Chapter IV. Prokaryotes: Bacteria and Archaea
Chapter V. Protists
Chapter VI. Fungi
Chapter VII. Introduction to Animal Diversity
Chapter VIII. Invertebrates
Chapter IX. Vertebrates
Chapter X. Plant Form and Physiology
Chapter XI. Plant Reproduction
Chapter XII. The Animal Body: Basic Form and Function
Chapter XIII. Animal Nutrition and the Digestive System
Chapter XIV. The Nervous System
Chapter XV. Sensory Systems
Chapter XVI. The Endocrine System
Chapter XVII. The Musculoskeletal System
Chapter XVIII. The Respiratory System
Chapter XIX. The Circulatory System
Chapter XX. Osmotic Regulation and Excretion
Chapter XXI. The Immune System
Chapter XXII. Animal Reproduction and Development
Chapter XXIII. Ecology and the Biosphere
Chapter XXIV. Population and Community Ecology
Chapter XXV. Ecosystems
Chapter XXVI. Conservation Biology and Biodiversity

Philosophy is many things to many people and so writing a general introduction to philosophy textbook is bound to itself be an exercise in meta-philosophy. Because this is so, there will be disagreements not only about what is in the textbook, but also about what it leaves out. In the process of editing the chapters for this text, the philosophers in my department (Paul Jurczak, Christopher Schneck, and Leanne Kent) had occasion to hash out some of these disagreements. I believe the resulting textbook is better for it, not to mention that we as philosophers are all better for it. As will perhaps be obvious for those who read the textbook, the different chapters have very different styles. We consider this diversity a virtue of the textbook, although we understand that it does make it bit more unwieldy. For example, Paul and I have very different backgrounds in philosophy. Paul reads French very well and knows a lot about Merleau-Ponty; I read no French, but am fairly engaged with the cognitive sciences. Paul knows a lot about history, literature, and film; I don’t, but can tell you more than you’d like to know about what’s wrong with Jerry Fodor’s asymmetric dependence account of mental representation or why Saul Kripke’s causal account reference is important. As philosophers may infer based on these descriptions, I was schooled within the “analytic” tradition of philosophy, whereas Paul’s interests lie more within the “Continental” tradition of philosophy. These differences speak to the diversity of what philosophy is and they are reflected in this textbook.

We often make judgments about good and bad, right and wrong. Philosophical ethics is the critical examination of these and other concepts central to how we evaluate our own and each others’ behavior and choices.

This text examines some of the main threads of discussion on these topics that have developed over the last couple of millenia, mostly within the Western cultural tradition. It considers basic questions about moral and ethical judgment: Is there such a thing as something that is really right or really wrong independent of time, place and perspective? What is the relationship between religion and ethics? How can we reconcile self-interest and ethics? Is it ever acceptable to harm one person in order to help others? What do recent discussions in evolutionary biology or have to say about human moral systems? What is the relation between gender and ethics? The authors invite you to participate in their exploration of these and many other questions in philosophical ethics.

If you are adopting or adapting this book for a course, please let us know on our adoption form for the Introduction to Philosophy open textbook series: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdwf2E7bRGvWefjhNZ07kgpgnNFxVxxp-iidPE5gfDBQNGBGg/viewform?usp=sf_link.