Books by Richard A. (University of Alabama) Richards

Biological accounts of art typically start with evolutionary, psychological or neurobiological theories. A more comprehensive framework, based also on the ecology of art and how art behaviors get expressed in engineered niches, can help us better understand the full range of art behaviors.

A comprehensive philosophical introduction to modern biological classification which covers its cultural, psychological and linguistic basis, its history from Aristotle to modern evolutionary approaches, and recent and ongoing debates about theoretical basis and methods.

This study surveys the history of thinking about species from Aristotle to modern biology to better understand the origin and significance of the species problem. It advocates a solution based on the idea of the division of conceptual labor, whereby species concepts function in different ways theoretically and operationally.