Evolution On Purpose

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Evolution On Purpose
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Author : Peter A. Corning
language : en
Publisher: MIT Press
Release Date : 2023-08-22
Evolution On Purpose written by Peter A. Corning and has been published by MIT Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-08-22 with Science categories.
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.”
Unfit For Purpose
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Author : Adam Hart
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date : 2020-06-11
Unfit For Purpose written by Adam Hart and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-06-11 with Science categories.
'A gripping and sobering reminder of how much we are all governed by our genetic inheritance. So much for free will.' The Mail on Sunday Stress, obesity, poor mental health, drug addiction, bowel diseases, violence and fake news; a stark checklist of modern world problems and every one of them is an echo of our evolutionary past. In Unfit for Purpose, biologist and broadcaster Adam Hart explores the mismatch between our fundamental biology and the modern world we have created. In each chapter Adam reveals the many ways in which biological adaptations that evolved to help us survive and thrive now work against us. For example, in the modern world stress is a killer but how did 'fight or flight' instincts turn from life-savers to life-takers? Obesity is a disease now but is it also just a side-effect of our evolutionary past? Whether it's the derailing of microbes in our gut, the rise of gluten and lactose intolerance, problems of social media or drug addiction, we always seem to have one foot in the modern world and the other firmly in our evolutionary past. Adam explores science, archaeology, medicine, genetics, sociology and more, to show how, in a modern world of our own making, we find ourselves 'unfit for purpose'. But all is not lost! In unpicking the causes of our current woes, he unearths some secrets of evolutionarily informed treatments that will change the way we think about ourselves and our future.
Darwin And Design
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Author : Michael Ruse
language : en
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Release Date : 2003
Darwin And Design written by Michael Ruse and has been published by Harvard University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2003 with History categories.
In clear, non-technical language, Ruse offers a full and fair assessment of the status of the argument from design in light of both the advances of modern evolutionary biology and the thinking of today’s philosophers—with special attention given to the supporters and critics of “intelligent design.”
The Selfish Gene
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Author : Richard Dawkins
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Release Date : 1989
The Selfish Gene written by Richard Dawkins and has been published by Oxford University Press, USA this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1989 with Medical categories.
Science need not be dull and bogged down by jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this entertaining look at evolution. The themes he takes up are the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinshiptheory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences. 'Should be read, can be read by almost anyone. It describes with great skill a new face of the theory of evolution.' W.D. Hamilton, Science
Selection
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Author : Graham Bell
language : en
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date : 2008-12-18
Selection written by Graham Bell and has been published by OUP Oxford this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-12-18 with Science categories.
This book adopts a direct experimental approach to evolutionary questions, drawing predominantly from research on microbial systems. The focus is on processes and mechanisms, and incorporates insights from recent advances in whole-genome sequencing, bioinformatics, environmental genomics and developmental genetics.
Evolution S Purpose
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Author : Steve McIntosh
language : en
Publisher: SelectBooks, Inc.
Release Date : 2012-10
Evolution S Purpose written by Steve McIntosh and has been published by SelectBooks, Inc. this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012-10 with Body, Mind & Spirit categories.
"Presents the author's view of the scientific story of our evolutionary origins to show how evolution's progressive generation of emergent value reveals a larger purpose within the process. He demonstrates how this purpose can be felt within each of us as the evolutionary impulse to make things better--to grow toward ever-widening realizations of beauty, truth, and goodness"--Provided by publisher
Why Think
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Author : Ronald de Sousa
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2007-06-25
Why Think written by Ronald de Sousa 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 2007-06-25 with Philosophy categories.
In this short and accessible book, Ronald de Sousa shows us that in order to understand what is truly important about our reasoning capacity, we need to change our thinking about what rationality actually is.
Supernormal Stimuli How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose
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Author : Deirdre Barrett
language : en
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Release Date : 2010-02-22
Supernormal Stimuli How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose written by Deirdre Barrett and has been published by W. W. Norton & Company this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-02-22 with Science categories.
How our once-helpful instincts got hijacked by our garish modern world. Have you ever wondered why some men choose pornography over actual women? Why so many people watch Friends instead of going out with their own buddies? Why a person would “feed” a plastic Pocket Pet while shirking real duties? Why both sides of every war see the other as the aggressor against whom their “Department of Defense” must respond? Harvard evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett explains how human instincts—for food, sex, or territorial protection—developed for life on the savannah ten thousand years ago, not for today’s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. Evolution, quite simply, has been unable to keep pace with the rapid changes of modern life. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects—from candy to pornography to atomic bombs—that gratify outmoded but persistent drives with dangerous results. In the 1930s Dutch Nobel laureate Niko Tinbergen found that birds that lay small, pale-blue eggs speckled with gray preferred to sit on giant, bright-blue, plaster dummies with black polka dots. He coined the term “supernormal stimuli” to describe these imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and, oddly, exert a stronger attraction than real things. Obviously these hard-wired preferences pose a danger to a species’ survival. Barrett’s singular insight is to apply this phenomenon for the first time to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment. Her book adroitly demonstrates how supernormal stimuli are a driving force in many of today’s most pressing problems, including obesity, our addiction to television and video games, and the past century’s extraordinarily violent wars. Man-made imitations, it turns out, have wreaked havoc on how we nurture our children, what food we put into our bodies, how we make love and war, and even how we understand ourselves. Barrett does more than pull the fire alarm to show how these unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses. There is a hopeful message here as well. Once we recognize how supernormal stimuli operate, we can craft new approaches to modern predicaments. Humans have one stupendous advantage over Tinbergen’s birds: a giant brain. The message of this book is that this gives us the unique ability to exercise self-control, override instincts that lead us astray, and save ourselves from civilization’s gaudy traps.
The Compatibility Of Evolution And Design
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Author : E. V. R. Kojonen
language : en
Publisher: Springer Nature
Release Date : 2021-08-10
The Compatibility Of Evolution And Design written by E. V. R. Kojonen and has been published by Springer Nature this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2021-08-10 with Philosophy categories.
This book challenges the widespread assumption of the incompatibility of evolution and the biological design argument. Kojonen analyzes the traditional arguments for incompatibility, and argues for salvaging the idea of design in a way that is fully compatible with evolutionary biology. Relating current views to their intellectual history, Kojonen steers a course that avoids common pitfalls such as the problems of the God of the gaps, the problem of natural evil, and the traditional Humean and Darwinian critiques. The resulting deconstruction of the opposition between evolution and design has the potential to transform this important debate.
Crooked Cats
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Author : Nayanika Mathur
language : en
Publisher: Harper Collins
Release Date : 2022-08-02
Crooked Cats written by Nayanika Mathur and has been published by Harper Collins this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022-08-02 with Nature categories.
Big cats - tigers, leopards and lions - that make prey of humans are commonly known as 'man-eaters'. Anthropologist Nayanika Mathur reconceptualizes them as cats that have gone off the straight path to become 'crooked'. Building upon fifteen years of research in India, Crooked Cats moves beyond both colonial and conservationist accounts to place crooked cats at the centre of the question of how we are to comprehend a planet in crisis. There are many theories on why and how a big cat comes to prey on humans, with ecological collapse emerging as a central factor. The book explores these in detail to offer new insights into the governance of nonhuman animals and their entanglements with humans. Weaving together 'beastly tales' spun from encounters with big cats, Mathur deepens our understanding of the causes, consequences and conceptualization of the climate crisis.