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Evolutionary Philosophy
The philosophy of evolution is the branch of philosophy that examines the philosophical implications of evolution and the intersections of evolutionary biology with other fields such as epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy. Charles Darwin's 1859 ''On the Origin of Species'' is usually considered to be the starting point of contemporary understandings of evolution. The history of evolutionary thought extends from antiquity to contemporary developments including the modern evolutionary synthesis, the extended evolutionary synthesis, and universal Darwinism. History Evolutionary theory was transformed by Charles Darwin's 1859 ''On the Origin of Species''; until that date the idea of evolutionary progress had been a pseudoscientific view, without evidence to back it. In the 20th century, evolutionary science underwent the modern evolutionary synthesis, and in the 21st century is undergoing the extended evolutionary synthesis. Social Spencerism was a misappli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its methods and assumptions. Historically, many of the individual sciences, such as physics and psychology, formed part of philosophy. However, they are considered separate academic disciplines in the modern sense of the term. Influential traditions in the history of philosophy include Western philosophy, Western, Islamic philosophy, Arabic–Persian, Indian philosophy, Indian, and Chinese philosophy. Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece and covers a wide area of philosophical subfields. A central topic in Arabic–Persian philosophy is the relation between reason and revelation. Indian philosophy combines the Spirituality, spiritual problem of how to reach Enlightenment in Buddhism, enlighten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene
In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protein-coding genes and non-coding genes. During gene expression (the synthesis of Gene product, RNA or protein from a gene), DNA is first transcription (biology), copied into RNA. RNA can be non-coding RNA, directly functional or be the intermediate protein biosynthesis, template for the synthesis of a protein. The transmission of genes to an organism's offspring, is the basis of the inheritance of phenotypic traits from one generation to the next. These genes make up different DNA sequences, together called a genotype, that is specific to every given individual, within the gene pool of the population (biology), population of a given species. The genotype, along with environmental and developmental factors, ultimately determines the phenotype ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Sloan Wilson
David Sloan Wilson (born 1949) is an American evolutionary biologist and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He is a son of author Sloan Wilson, a co-founder of Evolution Institute and a co-founder of Prosocial World. He has studied social evolution in Binghamton. Early life and academic career David Sloan Wilson is the son of the writer Sloan Wilson. He graduated with a B.A. with high honors in 1971 from the University of Rochester. He completed his Ph.D. in 1975 at Michigan State University. Wilson then worked as a research fellow in the Biological Laboratories at Harvard University from 1974 to 1975. He held a dual position as research associate in zoology at the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Washington from 1975 to 1976. After this he was a senior research officer at the South African National Research Institute for the Mathematical Sciences from 1976 to 1977. Wilson moved back to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolutionary Ethics
Evolutionary ethics is a field of inquiry that explores how evolutionary theory might bear on our understanding of ethics or morality. The range of issues investigated by evolutionary ethics is quite broad. Supporters of evolutionary ethics have argued that it has important implications in the fields of descriptive ethics, normative ethics, and metaethics. Descriptive evolutionary ethics consists of biological approaches to morality based on the alleged role of evolution in shaping human psychology and behavior. Such approaches may be based in scientific fields such as evolutionary psychology, sociobiology, or ethology, and seek to explain certain human moral behaviors, capacities, and tendencies in evolutionary terms. For example, the nearly universal belief that incest is morally wrong might be explained as an evolutionary adaptation that furthered human survival. Normative (or prescriptive) evolutionary ethics, by contrast, seeks not to explain moral behavior, but to justify o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Process Metaphysics
Process philosophy (also ontology of becoming or processism) is an approach in philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only real experience of everyday living. In opposition to the classical view of change as illusory (as argued by Parmenides) or accidental (as argued by Aristotle), process philosophy posits transient occasions of change or ''becoming'' as the only fundamental things of the ordinary everyday real world. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, classical ontology has posited ordinary world reality as constituted of enduring substances, to which transient processes are ontologically subordinate, if they are not denied. If Socrates changes, becomes sick, Socrates is still the same (the substance of Socrates being the same), and change (his sickness) only glides over his substance: change is accidental, and devoid of primary reality, whereas the substance is essential. In physics, Ilya Prigogine distinguishes between the "phys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interface Focus
''Interface Focus'' is the Royal Society's cross-disciplinary themed publication promoting research at the interface between the physical and life sciences. It is the sister journal to '' Journal of the Royal Society Interface'' with the main difference being that each issue of ''Interface Focus'' contains related articles based on a theme, which is guest edited by prominent researchers in a particular field. Each ''Interface Focus'' themed issue is devoted to a specific subject at the interface of the physical sciences and life sciences. Formed of high-quality articles, each issue aims to facilitate cross-disciplinary research across this traditional divide by acting as a forum accessible to all. Topics may be newly emerging areas of research or dynamic aspects of more established fields. Organisers of each ''Interface Focus'' issue are strongly encouraged to contextualise the journal within their chosen subject. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dupré
John A. Dupré (; born 3 July 1952) is a British philosopher of science. He is the director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, and professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter. Dupré's chief work area lies in philosophy of biology, philosophy of the social sciences, and general philosophy of science. Dupré, together with Nancy Cartwright, Ian Hacking, Patrick Suppes and Peter Galison, are often grouped together as the " Stanford School" of philosophy of science. In 2023, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. Education and career Dupré was educated at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge and taught at Oxford, Stanford University and Birkbeck, University of London before moving to Exeter. In 2010 Dupré was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of his work on Darwinism, and is a former president of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science. In 2018 he was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computation
A computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that is well-defined. Common examples of computation are mathematical equation solving and the execution of computer algorithms. Mechanical or electronic devices (or, historically, people) that perform computations are known as ''computers''. Computer science is an academic field that involves the study of computation. Introduction The notion that mathematical statements should be 'well-defined' had been argued by mathematicians since at least the 1600s, but agreement on a suitable definition proved elusive. A candidate definition was proposed independently by several mathematicians in the 1930s. The best-known variant was formalised by the mathematician Alan Turing, who defined a well-defined statement or calculation as any statement that could be expressed in terms of the initialisation parameters of a Turing machine. Other (mathematically equivalent) definitions include Alonzo Church's '' lambda-defin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolutionary Epistemology
Evolutionary epistemology refers to three distinct topics: (1) the biological evolution of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans, (2) a theory that knowledge itself evolves by natural selection, and (3) the study of the historical discovery of new abstract entities such as abstract number or abstract value that necessarily precede the individual acquisition and usage of such abstractions. As a branch of inquiry in epistemology, evolutionary epistemology lies at the crossroads of philosophy and evolutionary biology. Cognition in biological evolution can refer to a branch of inquiry in epistemology that applies the concepts of biological evolution to the growth of animal and human cognition. It argues that the mind is in part genetically determined and that its structure and function reflect adaptation, a nonteleological process of interaction between the organism and its environment. A cognitive trait tending to increase inclusive fitness in a given population should th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dean Keith Simonton
Dean Keith Simonton (born 1948) is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus based in Davis, California, affiliated with the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Simonton is known for his research in the fields of genius, creativity, leadership, and aesthetics. His work focus into the cognitive, personal, developmental, social, and cultural factors contributing to eminence, giftedness, and talent across various domains such as science, philosophy, literature, music, art, cinema, politics, and war. He has over 550 publications, including 14 books. One of his books, ''The Origins of Genius'', received the William James Book Award. Early life and education Simonton completed his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Occidental College in 1970, graduating ''magna cum laude'' and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Chi. He furthered his education at Harvard University, earning a Master of Arts in Social Psychology in 1973, followed by a Ph.D. in Social Psycho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald T
Donald is a Scottish masculine given name. It is derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the Gaelic pronunciation by English speakers. A short form of Donald is Don, and pet forms of Donald include Donnie and Donny. The feminine given name Donella is derived from Donald. ''Donald'' has cognates in other Celtic languages: Modern Irish ''Dónal'' (anglicised as ''Donal'' and ''Donall'');. Scottish Gaelic ''Dòmhnall'', ''Domhnull'' and ''Dòmhnull''; Welsh '' Dyfnwal'' and Cumbric ''Dumnagual''. Although the feminine given name '' Donna'' is sometimes used as a feminine form of ''Donald'', the names are not etymologically related. Variations Kings and noblemen Domnall or Domhnall is the name of many ancient and medieval Gaelic kings and noblemen: * Dyfnwal Moelmud (Dunvallo Molmutius), legendary ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kin Selection
Kin selection is a process whereby natural selection favours a trait due to its positive effects on the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even when at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction. Kin selection can lead to the evolution of Altruism in animals, altruistic behaviour. It is related to inclusive fitness, which combines the number of offspring produced with the number an individual can ensure the production of by supporting others (weighted by the relatedness between individuals). A broader definition of kin selection includes selection acting on interactions between individuals who share a gene of interest even if the gene is not shared due to common ancestry. Charles Darwin discussed the concept of kin selection in his 1859 book, ''On the Origin of Species'', where he reflected on the puzzle of sterile social insects, such as honey bees, which leave reproduction to their mothers, arguing that a selection benefit to related organisms (the sam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
