Evolution And The Machinery Of Chance
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Evolution And The Machinery Of Chance
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Author : Marshall Abrams
language : en
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date : 2023-07-10
Evolution And The Machinery Of Chance written by Marshall Abrams and has been published by University of Chicago Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-07-10 with Science categories.
An innovative view of the role of fitness concepts in evolutionary theory. Natural selection is one of the factors responsible for changes in biological populations. Some traits or organisms are fitter than others, and natural selection occurs when there are changes in the distribution of traits in populations because of fitness differences. Many philosophers of biology insist that a trait’s fitness should be defined as an average of the fitnesses of individual members of the population that have the trait. Marshall Abrams argues convincingly against this widespread approach. As he shows, it conflicts with the roles that fitness is supposed to play in evolutionary theory and with the ways that evolutionary biologists use fitness concepts in empirical research. The assumption that a causal kind of fitness is fundamentally a property of actual individuals has resulted in unnecessary philosophical puzzles and years of debate. Abrams came to see that the fitnesses of traits that are the basis of natural selection cannot be defined in terms of the fitnesses of actual members of populations, as philosophers of biology often claim. Rather, it is an overall population-environment system—not actual, particular organisms living in particular environmental conditions—that is the basis of trait fitnesses. Abrams argues that by distinguishing different classes of fitness concepts and the roles they play in the practice of evolutionary biology, we can see that evolutionary biologists’ diverse uses of fitness concepts make sense together and are consistent with the idea that fitness differences cause evolution. Abrams’s insight has broad significance, for it provides a general framework for thinking about the metaphysics of biological evolution and its relations to empirical research. As such, it is a game-changing book for philosophers of biology, biologists who want deeper insight into the nature of evolution, and anyone interested in the applied philosophy of probability.
Chance In Evolution
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Author : Grant Ramsey
language : en
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date : 2016-10-25
Chance In Evolution written by Grant Ramsey and has been published by University of Chicago Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-10-25 with Philosophy categories.
The first book to synthesize scientific and philosophical work on chance, this edited volume brings together leading biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of science, who collectively explore the role that chance plays or doesn t play, as the case may be in evolution. The first part of the volume places chance in historical context and explores how Darwin, along with his contemporaries, understood chance in addition to its related concepts; how these various concepts changed as Darwin s theory of evolution by natural selection developed into the Modern Synthesis; and how the chanciness of Darwinian theory affected theological resistance to it. The second part explores the importance of chance in current evolutionary theory. The third and final part focuses on recent empirical work in microbial experimental evolution and paleobiology, with the goal of determining how much of a role chance and contingency has played and continues to play in the history of life. The volume s final chapter investigates the perennial topic of chance in human evolution, beginning with the pre-Darwinian, theistic view that humans are at the pinnacle of the natural world and ending with the Darwinian view, which leaves no room for biological progress. It ultimately presents a more tempered view of biological progress and suggests that although our arrival on the evolutionary scene might not have been inevitable, it might not have been due to chance alone. "
The Rise Of Chance In Evolutionary Theory
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Author : Charles H. Pence
language : en
Publisher: Academic Press
Release Date : 2021-11-25
The Rise Of Chance In Evolutionary Theory written by Charles H. Pence and has been published by Academic Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2021-11-25 with Science categories.
The Rise of Chance in Evolutionary Theory: A Pompous Parade of Arithmetic explores a pivotal conceptual moment in the history of evolutionary theory: the development of its extensive reliance on a wide array of concepts of chance. It tells the history of a methodological and conceptual development that reshaped our approach to natural selection over a century, ranging from Darwin’s earliest notebooks in the 1830s to the early years of the Modern Synthesis in the 1930s. Far from being a “pompous parade of arithmetic, as one early critic argued, evolution transformed during this period to make these conceptual and technical tools indispensable. This book charts the role of chance in evolutionary theory from its beginnings to the earliest days of modern evolutionary theory, making it an ideal resource for evolutionary biologists, historians, philosophers, and researchers in science studies or biological statistics. Analyzes contributions of key historical figures and assesses how and why these “foundational conclusions were reached by original evolutionary biologists, including Darwin, Galton, Pearson, and more Describes the journey of the role of chance in evolutionary theory and illuminates our contemporary understanding Presents the historical narrative in a non-technical way, focusing on the conceptual structure of evolutionary theory
The Logic Of Chance
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Author : Eugene V. Koonin
language : en
Publisher: FT Press
Release Date : 2011-06-23
The Logic Of Chance written by Eugene V. Koonin and has been published by FT Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-06-23 with Science categories.
The Logic of Chance offers a reappraisal and a new synthesis of theories, concepts, and hypotheses on the key aspects of the evolution of life on earth in light of comparative genomics and systems biology. The author presents many specific examples from systems and comparative genomic analysis to begin to build a new, much more detailed, complex, and realistic picture of evolution. The book examines a broad range of topics in evolutionary biology including the inadequacy of natural selection and adaptation as the only or even the main mode of evolution; the key role of horizontal gene transfer in evolution and the consequent overhaul of the Tree of Life concept; the central, underappreciated evolutionary importance of viruses; the origin of eukaryotes as a result of endosymbiosis; the concomitant origin of cells and viruses on the primordial earth; universal dependences between genomic and molecular-phenomic variables; and the evolving landscape of constraints that shape the evolution of genomes and molecular phenomes. "Koonin's account of viral and pre-eukaryotic evolution is undoubtedly up-to-date. His "mega views" of evolution (given what was said above) and his cosmological musings, on the other hand, are interesting reading." Summing Up: Recommended Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association.
The Edge Of Evolution
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Author : Michael J. Behe
language : en
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date : 2008-06-17
The Edge Of Evolution written by Michael J. Behe and has been published by Simon and Schuster this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-06-17 with Religion categories.
The author of Darwin's Black Box draws on new findings in genetics to pose an argument for intelligent design that refutes Darwinian beliefs about evolution while offering alternative analyses of such factors as disease, random mutations, and the human struggle for survival. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.
Not By Chance
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Author : Lee M. Spetner
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 1997
Not By Chance written by Lee M. Spetner and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1997 with Creation categories.
The author criticies neo-Darwinism and suggests replacing it with "the nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis (NREH)"--p. 209.
Natural Selection
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Author : George C. Williams
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 1992-10-01
Natural Selection written by George C. Williams and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1992-10-01 with Science categories.
In this work, George C. Williams--one of evolutionary biology's most distinguished scholars--examines the mechanisms and meaning of natural selection in evolution. Williams offers his own perspective on modern evolutionary theory, including discussions of the gene as the unit of selection, clade selection and macroevolution, diversity within and among populations, stasis, and other timely and provocative topics. In dealing with the levels-of-selection controversy, he urges a pervasive form of the replicator-vehicle distinction. Natural selection, he argues, takes place in the separate domains of information and matter. Levels-of-selection questions, consequently, require different theoretical devices depending on the domains being discussed. In addressing these topics, Williams presents a synthesis of his three decades of research and creative thought which have contributed greatly to evolutionary biology in this century.
Not By Chance
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Author : Ronald C. Dressman
language : en
Publisher: Infinity Publishing
Release Date : 2007
Not By Chance written by Ronald C. Dressman and has been published by Infinity Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007 with Science categories.
How Science Works Evolution
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Author : John Ellis
language : en
Publisher: Springer
Release Date : 2016-07-09
How Science Works Evolution written by John Ellis and has been published by Springer this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-07-09 with Medical categories.
Evolution is just a theory, isn’t it? What is a scientific theory anyway? Don’t scientists prove things? What is the difference between a fact, a hypothesis and a theory in science? How does scientific thinking differ from religious thinking? Why are most leading scientists atheists? Are science and religion compatible? Why are there so many different religious beliefs but only one science? What is the evidence for evolution? Why does evolution occur? If you are interested in any of these questions and have some knowledge of biology, this book is for you.
Luck Or Cunning As The Main Means Of Organic Modification
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Author : Samuel Butler
language : en
Publisher: Good Press
Release Date : 2019-12-19
Luck Or Cunning As The Main Means Of Organic Modification written by Samuel Butler and has been published by Good Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-12-19 with Fiction categories.
In this book, the author, Samuel Butler, presents a simplified view of evolutionary theory as a contrast between the idea of intelligent design and the concept of random variation through natural selection. He portrays Darwin, Spencer and Romanes as advocates for luck and Erasmus Darwin, Buffon and himself as proponents of cunning as they believed in the existence of design and purpose in the universe.