This book argues that the widely accepted world view of materialist naturalism is untenable. The mind-body problem cannot be confined to the relation between animal minds and animal bodies. If ...materialism cannot accommodate consciousness and other mind-related aspects of reality, then we must abandon a purely materialist understanding of nature in general, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. No such explanation is available, and the physical sciences, including molecular biology, cannot be expected to provide one. The book explores these problems through a general treatment of the obstacles to reductionism, with more specific application to the phenomena of consciousness, cognition, and value. The conclusion is that physics cannot be the theory of everything.
Darwin's Legacy Dupre, John A
2003, 2005, 2005-07-28, 20030101
eBook
Charles Darwin transformed our understanding of the universe and our place in it with his development of the theory of evolution. 150 years later, we are still puzzling over the implications. John ...Dupr? presents a lucid, witty introduction to evolution and what it means for our view of humanity, the natural world, and religion. He explains the right and the wrong ways to understand evolution: in the latter category fall most of the claims of evolutionary psychology, of which Dupr? gives a withering critique. He shows why the theory of evolution is one of the most important scientific ideas of all time, but makes clear that it can't explain everything - contrary to widespread popular belief, it has very little to tell us about the details of human nature and human behaviour, such as language, culture, and sexuality. Anyone who is interested in understanding what the theory of evolution can and can't do will find Darwin's Legacy a compelling and enjoyable introduction.
Historical biogeography-the study of the history of species through both time and place-first convinced Charles Darwin of evolution. This field was so important to Darwin's initial theories and line ...of thinking that he said as much in the very first paragraph ofOn the Origin of Species(1859) and later in his autobiography. His methods included collecting mammalian fossils in South America clearly related to living forms, tracing the geographical distributions of living species across South America, and sampling peculiar fauna of the geologically young Galápagos Archipelago that showed evident affinities to South American forms. Over the years, Darwin collected other evidence in support of evolution, but his historical biogeographical arguments remained paramount, so much so that he devotes three full chapters to this topic inOn the Origin of Species.Discussions of Darwin's landmark book too often give scant attention to this wealth of evidence, and we still do not fully appreciate its significance in Darwin's thinking. InOrigins of Darwin's Evolution, J. David Archibald explores this lapse, showing how Darwin first came to the conclusion that, instead of various centers of creation, species had evolved in different regions throughout the world. He also shows that Darwin's other early passion-geology-proved a more elusive corroboration of evolution.On the Origin of Specieshas only one chapter dedicated to the rock and fossil record, as it then appeared too incomplete for Darwin's evidentiary standards. Carefully retracing Darwin's gathering of evidence and the evolution of his thinking,Origins of Darwin's Evolutionachieves a new understanding of how Darwin crafted his transformative theory.
From the archive Yengo, Loic
Nature (London),
03/2022, Letnik:
603, Številka:
7903
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A look at technological advances for ocean studies, and an explanation for why fish can rain from the sky. 50 years ago A visit to the Oceanology International 72 Exhibition in Brighton left a ...bewildering impression of an array of technological advances and techniques ... ...strange occurrences have given rise to much speculation and many even stranger theories by way of explanation. ...men with a higher number of deleterious mutations in these genes are more likely than those with fewer numbers to exhibit behavioural and cognitive traits that might reduce their likelihood of finding a partner.
Darwin loves you Levine, George Lewis
2006., 20080310, 2008, 2006, 2006-01-01
eBook
Jesus and Darwin do battle on car bumpers across America. Medallions of fish symbolizing Jesus are answered by ones of amphibians stamped "Darwin," and stickers proclaiming "Jesus Loves You" are ...countered by "Darwin Loves You." The bumper sticker debate might be trivial and the pronouncement that "Darwin Loves You" may seem merely ironic, but George Levine insists that the message contains an unintended truth. In fact, he argues, we can read it straight. Darwin, Levine shows, saw a world from which his theory had banished transcendence as still lovable and enchanted, and we can see it like that too--if we look at his writings and life in a new way. Although Darwin could find sublimity even in ants or worms, the word "Darwinian" has largely been taken to signify a disenchanted world driven by chance and heartless competition. Countering the pervasive view that the facts of Darwin’s world must lead to a disenchanting vision of it, Levine shows that Darwin’s ideas and the language of his books offer an alternative form of enchantment, a world rich with meaning and value, and more wonderful and beautiful than ever before. Without minimizing or sentimentalizing the harsh qualities of life governed by natural selection, and without deifying Darwin, Levine makes a moving case for an enchanted secularism--a commitment to the value of the natural world and the human striving to understand it.
Darwin's Camera tells the extraordinary story of how Charles Darwin helped revolutionize the way that photographs are used in books. In his Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1871), ...Darwin introduced the idea of using photographs to illustrate a scientific theory--his was the first photographically-illustrated science book ever published. Prodger also shows how Darwin corresponded with celebrated animal painters, sculptors, and such legendary photographers as Lewis Caroll and Julia Margaret Cameron. This is the first book to examine these relationships.
Oliveira and Barabasi compare Darwin and Einstein's patterns of correspondence with today's electronic exchanges. The correspondence patterns of Einstein and Darwin are examples of well mapped ...patterns of human interaction.
Erasmus Darwin and his grandson, Charles, were the two most important evolutionary theorists of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain. Although their ideas and methods differed, both Darwins ...were prolific and inventive writers: Erasmus composed several epic poems and scientific treatises, while Charles is renowned both for his collected journals (now titled The Voyage of the Beagle ) and for his masterpiece, The Origin of Species . In The Age of Analogy , Devin Griffiths argues that the Darwins’ writing style was profoundly influenced by the poets, novelists, and historians of their era. The Darwins, like other scientists of the time, labored to refashion contemporary literary models into a new mode of narrative analysis that could address the contingent world disclosed by contemporary natural science. By employing vivid language and experimenting with a variety of different genres, these writers gave rise to a new relational study of antiquity, or comparative historicism, that emerged outside of traditional histories. It flourished instead in literary forms like the realist novel and the elegy, as well as in natural histories that explored the continuity between past and present forms of life. Nurtured by imaginative cross-disciplinary descriptions of the past—from the historical fiction of Sir Walter Scott and George Eliot to the poetry of Alfred Tennyson—this novel understanding of history fashioned new theories of natural transformation, encouraged a fresh investment in social history, and explained our intuition that environment shapes daily life. Drawing on a wide range of archival evidence and contemporary models of scientific and literary networks, The Age of Analogy explores the critical role analogies play within historical and scientific thinking. Griffiths also presents readers with a new theory of analogy that emphasizes language's power to foster insight into nature and human society. The first comparative treatment of the Darwins’ theories of history and their profound contribution to the study of both natural and human systems, this book will fascinate students and scholars of nineteenth-century British literature and the history of science.
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