Richard Levins

Richard Levins (June 1, 1930 – January 19, 2016) was a Marxist biologist, population geneticist, biomathematician, mathematical ecologist, and philosopher of science who researched diversity in human populations. Until his death, he was a university professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a long-time political activist. He was best known for his work on evolution and complexity in changing environments and on metapopulations.

In addition to his scientific work, Levins wrote extensively on philosophical issues in biology and modelling. One of his most cited articles is "The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology" (1966). He influenced a number of philosophers of science through his writings.

Levins often boasted that he was a "fourth generation Marxist" and said that his methodology in Evolution in Changing Environments was based on Marx's Grundrisse, the notes (not published till 1939) for Das Kapital. With evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin, Levins authored numerous articles on the social implications of biology, many of which were collected in The Dialectical Biologist (1985). In 2007, the duo published a second anthology titled Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health. Levins and Lewontin also co-wrote satirical articles criticizing sociobiology, systems modeling in ecology, and other topics under the pseudonym Isadore Nabi.