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.
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.
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.
‘Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by ...science.’ Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871, p. 3.This quote from Charles Darwin applies to many things in the world of medicine and orthopaedics but none more so than that of orthopaedic oncology. As oncology surgeons strive daily to move away from the ‘tumour and sepsis’ stereotype and to deal with sarcomas rather than tumours, so too are we also trying to improve the treatment of sarcoma patients in South Africa. There is no reason why ‘whoops’ procedures should still occur or for a non-qualified surgeon to ‘give it a go’. The risk of patient morbidity is just too great. Focus and attention to detail in the history and examination of a mass or the reading of a radiograph can give enough information to determine whether a mass is of concern for a sarcoma or not. If there is concern, a referral should be made.
After setting out the intellectual, cultural, and political context of the reception of Darwinism in Argentina, this book presents original translations of central texts in that reception, most of ...which have never before appeared in English.
As the founder and leading practitioner of "literary Darwinism, " Joseph Carroll remains at the forefront of a major movement in literary studies. Signaling key new developments in this approach, ...Reading Human Nature contains trenchant theoretical essays, innovative empirical research, sweeping surveys of intellectual history, and sophisticated interpretations of specific literary works, including The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wuthering Heights, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Hamlet. Evolutionists in the social sciences have succeeded in delineating basic motives but have given far too little attention to the imagination. Carroll makes a compelling case that literary Darwinism is not just another "school" or movement in literary theory. It is the moving force in a fundamental paradigm change in the humanities—a revolution. Psychologists and anthropologists have provided massive evidence that human motives and emotions are rooted in human biology. Since motives and emotions enter into all the products of a human imagination, humanists now urgently need to assimilate a modern scientific understanding of "human nature." Integrating evolutionary social science with literary humanism, Carroll offers a more complete and adequate understanding of human nature.
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