Download or read book Evolutionary Emergence of Purposive Goals and Values written by Donald A. Crosby and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2023-08-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where do the purposes, values, and existential meanings of the world come from? For many, they are conferred on the world and on humans within the world by a supernatural, transcendent, personal divine creator and sustainer. For others, they result from a God or divine presence residing within nature. For still others, they give evidence of mind and spirit as primordial principles suffusing nature from the outset and in all of its forms. In Evolutionary Emergence of Purposive Goals and Values, Donald A. Crosby takes issue with each of these views. His thesis is that mind, meaning, purpose, and value come into existence with the evolutionary emergence of life, and that evolution itself gives evidence of the creative power of two primordial natural principles: matter-energy and time. There is no overarching purpose, value, or meaning of nature as such, but there is a plethora of such factors evident in the evolved life forms of nature here on earth. This fact is especially evident in the day-to-day experiences, aspirations, and concerns of us evolutionarily-evolved human beings. Purpose, meaning, and value are therefore gifts of evolutionary nature, not of any supernatural or non-natural principle, presence, or power.
Download or read book The later works 1925 1953 3 1927 1928 essays reviews miscellany and Impressions of Soviet Russia written by John Dewey and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Purposive Behaviour and Teleological Explanations written by Frank Honywill George and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Our Fundamental Problem written by Nicholas Maxwell and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2020-06-03 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can the world we live in and see, touch, hear, and smell, the world of living things, people, consciousness, free will, meaning, and value - how can all of this exist and flourish embedded as it is in the physical universe, made up of nothing but physical entities such as electrons and quarks? How can anything be of value if everything in the universe is, ultimately, just physics? In Our Fundamental Problem Nicholas Maxwell argues that this problem of reconciling the human and physical worlds needs to take centre stage in our thinking, so that our best ideas about it interact with our attempts to solve even more important specialized problems of thought and life. When we explore this fundamental problem, Maxwell argues, revolutionary answers emerge for a wide range of questions arising in philosophy, science, social inquiry, academic inquiry as a whole, and - most important of all - our capacity to solve the global problems that threaten our future: climate change, habitat destruction, extinction of species, inequality, war, pollution of earth, sea, and air. An unorthodox introduction to philosophy, Our Fundamental Problem brings philosophy down to earth and demonstrates its vital importance for science, scholarship, education, life, and the fate of the world.
Download or read book Evolution On Purpose written by Peter A. Corning and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-08-22 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique exploration of teleonomy—also known as “evolved purposiveness”—as a major influence in evolution by a broad range of specialists in biology and the philosophy of science. The evolved purposiveness of living systems, termed “teleonomy” by chronobiologist Colin Pittendrigh, has been both a major outcome and causal factor in the history of life on Earth. Many theorists have appreciated this over the years, going back to Lamarck and even Darwin in the nineteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the complex, dynamic process of evolution was simplified into the one-way, bottom-up, single gene-centered paradigm widely known as the modern synthesis. In Evolution “On Purpose,” edited by Peter A. Corning, Stuart A. Kauffman, Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, Richard I. Vane-Wright, and Addy Pross, some twenty theorists attempt to modify this reductive approach by exploring in depth the different ways in which living systems have themselves shaped the course of evolution. Evolution “On Purpose” puts forward a more inclusive theoretical synthesis that goes far beyond the underlying principles and assumptions of the modern synthesis to accommodate work since the 1950s in molecular genetics, developmental biology, epigenetic inheritance, genomics, multilevel selection, niche construction, physiology, behavior, biosemiotics, chemical reaction theory, and other fields. In the view of the authors, active biological processes are responsible for the direction and the rate of evolution. Essays in this collection grapple with topics from the two-way “read-write” genome to cognition and decision-making in plants to the niche-construction activities of many organisms to the self-making evolution of humankind. As this collection compellingly shows, and as bacterial geneticist James Shapiro emphasizes, “The capacity of living organisms to alter their own heredity is undeniable.”
Download or read book The Human World in the Physical Universe written by Nicholas Maxwell and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2001 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is it possible for the world as we experience it to exist embedded in the physical universe? How can there be sensory qualities, consciousness, freedom, science and art, friendship, love, justice--all that which gives meaning and value to life--if the world really is more or less as modern science tells us it is? This is the problem that is tackled by this book. The solution proposed is that physics describes only a selected aspect of all that exists--that aspect which determines the way events unfold. Sensory qualities, inner experiences, consciousness, meaning and value, all these exist but lie beyond the scope of physics, and of that part of science that can be reduced to physics. Furthermore, these human features of the world are to be explained and understood, not scientifically, but "personalistically," a kind of understanding distinct from, and not reducible to, science. This view that the world is riddled with what may be called "double comprehensibility" leads to a proposed solution to the philosophical mind/body problem, and to the problem of free will; it leads to a reinterpretation of Darwin's theory of evolution, and to an account of the evolution of consciousness and free will. After a discussion of the location of consciousness in the brain, the book concludes with a proposal as to how academic inquiry might be changed so that it becomes a kind of inquiry rationally designed to help humanity create a more civilized human world in the physical universe.
Download or read book Environment Evolution and Values written by D.P. Chattopadhyaya and published by Concept Publishing Company. This book was released on 2007 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is mainly concerned with environment evolution and values, -- terms which figure in its very title. The basic underlying concepts of evolution are natural environment highlighted by Lamarck (1744-1829), Heredity and natural selection emphasised by Darwin (1809-1882) and genetic mutation first developed by Mendel (1822-1884). Though these three great life scientists brought to light three main components of biological evolution, these were known and formulated by others for a long time.Nature is ordinarily believed to be a world of facts governed by law of causality and values are said to be rooted in human freedom. The author of this book has paid special attention to the so-called value-fact dualism with special reference to changing theories of evolution, and an attempt has been made to show that the supposed dualism is untenable. This book will be of interest to philosophers, life scientists and social scientists. It will be of interest also to the general readers.
Download or read book Pragmatism s Evolution written by Trevor Pearce and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An important contribution . . . invaluable to anyone interested in the history of pragmatism and the influence of biology and evolution on pragmatic thinkers.” —Richard J. Bernstein, The New School for Social Research, author of The Pragmatic Turn In Pragmatism’s Evolution, Trevor Pearce demonstrates that the philosophical tradition of pragmatism owes an enormous debt to specific biological debates in the late 1800s, especially those concerning the role of the environment in development and evolution. Many are familiar with John Dewey’s 1909 assertion that evolutionary ideas overturned two thousand years of philosophy—but what exactly happened in the fifty years prior to Dewey’s claim? What form did evolutionary ideas take? When and how were they received by American philosophers? Although the various thinkers associated with pragmatism—from Charles Sanders Peirce to Jane Addams and beyond—were towering figures in American intellectual life, few realize the full extent of their engagement with the life sciences. In his analysis, Pearce focuses on a series of debates in biology from 1860 to 1910—from the instincts of honeybees to the inheritance of acquired characteristics—in which the pragmatists were active participants. If we want to understand the pragmatists and their influence, Pearce argues, we need to understand the relationship between pragmatism and biology. “Pragmatism’s Evolution is about the role of evolution, as a theory, in American pragmatism, as well as the early evolution of pragmatism itself.” —Isis “Superb.” —Metascience “[An] important book.” —Acta Biotheoretica “A significant and edifying work.” —Choice “Pearce has done something remarkable and all too rare: written a book at the intersection of philosophy, science, and history that is equally excellent in all three respects.” —International Journal of Philosophical Studies
Download or read book Handbook of Evolution written by Franz M. Wuketits and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-11-20 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This two-volume handbook is unique in spanning the entire field of evolution, from the origins of life up to the formation of social structures and science and technology. The author team of world-renowned experts considers the subject from a variety of disciplines, with continuous cross-referencing so as to retain a logical internal structure. The uniformly structured contributions discuss not merely the general knowledge behind the evolution of life, but also the corresponding development of language, society, economies, morality and politics. The result is an overview of the history and methods used in the study of evolution, including controversial theories and discussions. A must for researchers in the natural sciences, sociology and philosophy, as well as for those interested in an interdisciplinary view of the status of evolution today.
Download or read book Evolution and the Diversity of Life written by Ernst Mayr and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The diversity of living forms and the unity of evolutionary processes are the focus of these essays. The collection helps form much of the basis of contempoary undertanding of evolutionary biology.
Download or read book Scenarios and Indicators for Sustainable Development Towards A Critical Assessment of Achievements and Challenges written by Joachim H. Spangenberg and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-03-14 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globalization and telecoupling are enhancing the complexity of the coupled socio-ecological system constituted by the interaction between the global ecosphere and the anthroposphere. As a result, the demand for tools to identify transformative innovations, assess future risks, and support precautionary decisions for sustainability is growing by the day in business and politics. Scenarios are a means of simplification, reducing the real-world complexity to a limited number of essential factors to analyze their interactions and support policy formulation, with indicators as communication and monitoring tools. In particular, in a time of “fake news” and “alternative truths” a critical reflection amongst producers and users of scenarios and indicators is overdue—the capability for critical self-reflection is what distinguishes science from pseudo-science, and is a condition of trust. The authors of this book test established measurement and modeling approaches against new challenges, assess the weaknesses of prevailing innovation theories and the political-ideological embedment of archetypical scenarios, highlight deficits in taking the physical basics into account, and the need to understand global interaction and the stepwise process of energy transitions, point out technical as well as conceptual weaknesses in data collection, harmonization and indicator generation, always with a view to solving problems.
Download or read book International Journal of Ethics written by and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes section "Book reviews."
Download or read book Outing and the Wheelman written by and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Evolution adjusted Tumor Pathophysiology written by Albrecht Reichle and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combined modularized therapies for metastatic cancer are pointing to central problems of communication among ‘systems participators’. A communication theory explains 'social engineering', endogenously induced or by implementing non-normative boundary conditions. Evolution-adjusted tumor pathophysiology is borne by an evolution theory, which contrasts narrative evolution histories. The tool of rationalizations constituting the tumor's normativity (inflammation, immune response etc.) represents the non-genomic counterpart of the tumor genome and should be additionally assessed during tumor staging. Evolution-adjusted tumor pathophysiology allows implementing applied systems biology, a novel clinical and pharmaceutical technology for bioengineering tumor response and personalizing tumor therapy. Combined modularized therapy, evolution-adjusted tumor pathophysiology, and ‘universal’ biomarkers concertedly address genetically based tumor heterogeneity.
Download or read book Creative Evolution written by Amit Goswami and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2014-01-23 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By denying evolution altogether, says quantum physicist Amit Goswani, intelligent design believers fly in the face of scientific data. But the idea of intelligent design does contain substance that neo-Darwinists cannot ignore. Goswani posits that consciousness, not matter, is the primary force in the universe. Biology must come to terms with feeling, meaning, and the purposefulness of life, as well as with the idea of a designer. What’s more, reconciling the question of life’s purposefulness and the existence of the designer with neo-Darwinism also answers many other difficult questions. The result is a paradigm shift for biology and the vision of a coherent whole that Goswami calls "science within consciousness." In this timely, important book, the author offers clear arguments supported by the findings of quantum physics that represent a major step in resolving controversies between science and religion.
Download or read book The Role of Labour Mobility and Informal Networks for Knowledge Transfer written by Dirk Fornahl and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-01-17 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this volume is to analyze the microfoundations of knowledge spillovers. The microeconomic analysis of spillovers leads to the insight that the spillover and flow of knowledge is not at all automatic. Instead, this volume suggests that a filter exists between knowledge and its economic application. The focus of this volume is on several key mechanisms that serve to reduce this filter and facilitate the flow of knowledge. In particular, the volume draws on an emerging literature identifying the role of knowledge spillovers to investigate significance of labor mobility and informal networks as mechanisms facilitating the flow of knowledge. No field in economics has dealt extensively with the microeconomics of knowledge spillovers. This volume brings together scholars from a broad spectrum of fields including labor economics, regional economics, the economics of innovation and technological change, and sociology to introduce new insights yielded from the microfoundations of knowledge spillovers.
Download or read book Issues in Evolutionary Epistemology written by Kai Hahlweg and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1989-11-01 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the fullest philosophical examination of theories of evolutionary epistemology now available. Here for the first time are found major statements of new theories, new applications, and many new critical explorations. The book is divided into four parts: Part I introduces several new approaches to evolutionary epistemology; Part II attempts to widen the scope of evolutionary epistemology, either by tackling more traditional epistemological issues, or by applying evolutionary models to new areas of inquiry such as the evolution of culture or of intentionality; Part III critically discusses specific problems in evolutionary epistemology; and Part IV deals with the relationship of evolutionary epistemology to the philosophy of mind. Because of its intellectual depth and its breadth of coverage, Issues in Evolutionary Epistemology will be an important text in the field for many years to come.
