Pre-Darwinian Thinking and Charles Darwin
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Aristotle's Essentialism Revisited
University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Theses Graduate Works 4-15-2013 Accommodating Species Evolution: Aristotle’s Essentialism Revisited Yin Zhang University of Missouri-St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Zhang, Yin, "Accommodating Species Evolution: Aristotle’s Essentialism Revisited" (2013). Theses. 192. http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/192 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Accommodating Species Evolution: Aristotle’s Essentialism Revisited by Yin Zhang B.A., Philosophy, Peking University, 2010 A Thesis Submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Philosophy May 2013 Advisory Committee Jon D. McGinnis, Ph.D. Chairperson Andrew G. Black, Ph.D. Berit O. Brogaard, Ph.D. Zhang, Yin, UMSL, 2013, p. i PREFACE In the fall of 2008 when I was a junior at Peking University, I attended a lecture series directed by Dr. Melville Y. Stewart on science and religion. Guest lecturers Dr. Alvin Plantinga, Dr. William L. Craig and Dr. Bruce Reichenbach have influenced my thinking on the relation between evolution and faith. In the fall of 2010 when I became a one-year visiting student at Calvin College in Michigan, I took a seminar directed by Dr. Kelly J. Clark on evolution and ethics. Having thought about evolution/faith and evolution/ethics, I signed up for Dr. -
The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency
The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency Johannes Jaeger Complexity Science Hub (CSH), Vienna, Josefstädter Straße 39, 1080 Vienna Abstract This chapter examines the deep connections between biological organization, agency, and evolution by natural selection. Using Griesemer’s account of the re- producer, I argue that the basic unit of evolution is not a genetic replicator, but a complex hierarchical life cycle. Understanding the self-maintaining and self-pro- liferating properties of evolvable reproducers requires an organizational account of ontogenesis and reproduction. This leads us to an extended and disambiguated set of minimal conditions for evolution by natural selection—including revised or new principles of heredity, variation, and ontogenesis. More importantly, the con- tinuous maintenance of biological organization within and across generations im- plies that all evolvable systems are agents, or contain agents among their parts. This means that we ought to take agency seriously—to better understand the con- cept and its role in explaining biological phenomena—if we aim to obtain an or- ganismic theory of evolution in the original spirit of Darwin’s struggle for exis- tence. This kind of understanding must rely on an agential perspective on evolu- tion, complementing and succeeding existing structural, functional, and processual approaches. I sketch a tentative outline of such an agential perspective, and present a survey of methodological and conceptual challenges that will have to be overcome if we are to properly implement it. 1. Introduction There are two fundamentally different ways to interpret Darwinian evolutionary theory. Charles Darwin’s original framework grounds the process of evolution on 2 the individual’s struggle for existence (Darwin, 1859). -
Chapter 22 Notes: Introduction to Evolution
NOTES: Ch 22 – Descent With Modification – A Darwinian View of Life Our planet is home to a huge variety of organisms! (Scientists estimate of organisms alive today!) Even more amazing is evidence of organisms that once lived on earth, but are now . Several hundred million species have come and gone during 4.5 billion years life is believed to have existed on earth So…where have they gone… why have they disappeared? EVOLUTION: the process by which have descended from . Central Idea: organisms alive today have been produced by a long process of . FITNESS: refers to traits and behaviors of organisms that enable them to survive and reproduce COMMON DESCENT: species ADAPTATION: any inherited characteristic that enhances an organism’s ability to ~based on variations that are HOW DO WE KNOW THAT EVOLUTION HAS OCCURRED (and is still happening!!!)??? Lines of evidence: 1) So many species! -at least (250,000 beetles!) 2) ADAPTATIONS ● Structural adaptations - - ● Physiological adaptations -change in - to certain toxins 3) Biogeography: - - and -Examples: 13 species of finches on the 13 Galapagos Islands -57 species of Kangaroos…all in Australia 4) Age of Earth: -Rates of motion of tectonic plates - 5) FOSSILS: -Evidence of (shells, casts, bones, teeth, imprints) -Show a -We see progressive changes based on the order they were buried in sedimentary rock: *Few many fossils / species * 6) Applied Genetics: “Artificial Selection” - (cattle, dogs, cats) -insecticide-resistant insects - 7) Homologies: resulting from common ancestry Anatomical Homologies: ● comparative anatomy reveals HOMOLOGOUS STRUCTURES ( , different functions) -EX: ! Vestigial Organs: -“Leftovers” from the evolutionary past -Structures that Embryological Homologies: ● similarities evident in Molecular/Biochemical Homologies: ● DNA is the “universal” genetic code or code of life ● Proteins ( ) Darwin & the Scientists of his time Introduction to Darwin… ● On November 24, 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. -
Foucault's Darwinian Genealogy
genealogy Article Foucault’s Darwinian Genealogy Marco Solinas Political Philosophy, University of Florence and Deutsches Institut Florenz, Via dei Pecori 1, 50123 Florence, Italy; [email protected] Academic Editor: Philip Kretsedemas Received: 10 March 2017; Accepted: 16 May 2017; Published: 23 May 2017 Abstract: This paper outlines Darwin’s theory of descent with modification in order to show that it is genealogical in a narrow sense, and that from this point of view, it can be understood as one of the basic models and sources—also indirectly via Nietzsche—of Foucault’s conception of genealogy. Therefore, this essay aims to overcome the impression of a strong opposition to Darwin that arises from Foucault’s critique of the “evolutionistic” research of “origin”—understood as Ursprung and not as Entstehung. By highlighting Darwin’s interpretation of the principles of extinction, divergence of character, and of the many complex contingencies and slight modifications in the becoming of species, this essay shows how his genealogical framework demonstrates an affinity, even if only partially, with Foucault’s genealogy. Keywords: Darwin; Foucault; genealogy; natural genealogies; teleology; evolution; extinction; origin; Entstehung; rudimentary organs “Our classifications will come to be, as far as they can be so made, genealogies; and will then truly give what may be called the plan of creation. The rules for classifying will no doubt become simpler when we have a definite object in view. We possess no pedigrees or armorial bearings; and we have to discover and trace the many diverging lines of descent in our natural genealogies, by characters of any kind which have long been inherited. -
Biblical Catastrophism and Geology
BIBLICAL CATASTROPHISM AND GEOLOGY HENRY M. MORRIS Professor of Civi I Engineering Virginia Polytechnic Institute Theories of catastrophism in geological interpretation are not new. Prior to the time of Sir Charles Lyell, scientists generally believed that most geological formations must be attributed to great physical catastrophes or revolutions. Lyell, however, taught that these phenomena could be explained by the ordinary processes of nature, acting over vast expanses of geological time. This is his "principle of uniformitarianism, II. now almost universally accepted as the foundation princ~ple of modern historical geology. Profoundly influenced by LyelPs theories, Charles Darwin soon published his theory of evolu tion by natural selection. The supposed paleontologi cal record of the evolutionary history of life on earth, together with the principle of uniformity, now constitutes the interpretive framework within which all data of historical geology are supposed to be explained. Furthermore, this phil osophy of evolutionary uniformitarianism now serves also as the interpretive framework in the social sciences and economi cs, and even in the study of religion itself. Thus a superstructure of gigantic size has been erected on the Lyellian-Darwinian foundation. However, catastrophism is not dead. The inadequacies of a thorough-going uniformitarianism have become increasingly obvious in recent years, and such quasi-catastrophist concepts as wan dering continents, shifting poles, slipping crusts, meteoritic and cometary collisions, etc., are appearing more and more frequently in geological literature. It is, in fact, generally recognized that even the ordinary fossiliferous deposits of the sedimentary rocks must often have at least a semi-catastrophist basis, since the process of fossilization usually requires rather rapid burial, under conditions seldom encountered in the modern world. -
1 1 Catastrophism, Uniformitarianism, and a Scientific
1 Catastrophism, Uniformitarianism, and a Scientific Realism Debate That Makes a Difference P. Kyle Stanford ([email protected]) Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science UC Irvine Abstract Some scientific realists suggest that scientific communities have improved in their ability to discover alternative theoretical possibilities and that the problem of unconceived alternatives therefore poses a less significant threat to contemporary scientific communities than it did to their historical predecessors. I first argue that the most profound and fundamental historical transformations of the scientific enterprise have actually increased rather than decreased our vulnerability to the problem. I then argue that whether we are troubled by even the prospect of increasing theoretical conservatism in science should depend on the position we occupy in the ongoing debate concerning scientific realism itself. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge useful discussions concerning the material in this paper with Kevin Zollman, Penelope Maddy, Jeff Barrett, Pat Forber, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Steve Shapin, Fred Kronz, John Norton, Michael Weisberg, Jane Maienschein, Julia Bursten, Carole Lee, and Arash Pessian, as well as audiences at the Durham University Conference on Unconceived Alternatives and Scientific Realism, the University of Vienna’s (Un)Conceived Alternatives Symposium, the University of Pittsburgh’s Conference on Choosing the Future of Science, Lingnan University’s ‘Science: The Real Thing?’ Conference, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Cambridge University, the University of Vienna, the University of Pennsylvania, UC San Diego, the University of Washington, the University of Western Ontario, the Pittsburgh Center for the Philosophy of Science, Washington University in St. Louis, Bloomsburg University, Indiana University, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and the Australian National University. -
Catastrophism and Uniformitarianism: Logical Roots and Current Relevance in Geology
Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 29, 2021 Catastrophism and uniformitarianism" logical roots and current relevance in geology VICTOR R. BAKER Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0011, USA Abstract, Catastrophism in the Earth sciences is rooted in the view that Earth signifies its causative processes via landforms, structures and rock. Processes of types, rates and magnitudes not presently in evidence may well be signified this way. Uniformitarianism, in contrast, is a regulative stipulation motivated by the presumed necessity that science achieves logical validity in what can be said (hypothesized) about the Earth. Regulative principles, including simplicity, actualism and gradualism, are imposed a priori to insure valid inductive reasoning. This distinction lies at the heart of the catastrophist versus uniformitarian debates in the early nine- teenth century and it continues to influence portions of the current scientific program. Uniform- itarianism, as introduced by Charles Lyell in 1830, is specifically tied to an early nineteenth century view of inductive inference. Catastrophism involves a completely different form of inference in which hypotheses are generated retroductively. This latter form of logical inference remains relevant to modern science, while the outmoded notions of induction that warranted the doctrine of uniformitarianism were long ago shown to be overly restrictive in scientific practice. The latter should be relegated solely to historical interest in the progress of ideas. On 4 July 1997, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft Antarctic ice, was interpreted as showing various made a highly successful landing in the Ares Vallis indicators of possible relic biogenic activity region of Mars. -
AR Wallace's Approach
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Apollo Volume 5, No. 4 16 Evolutionism Combined with Spiritualism: A. R. Wallace’s Approach ∗ Li LIU Peking University Abstract: A. R. Wallace was the co-founder of the theory of natural selection and a solid supporter of Darwin, but he combined evolutionism with spiritualism, and tried to understand human evolution and evolutionary ethics with a spiritualistic teleology. This teleological version is a typical example of non-Darwinian evolutionism , which was rooted in the ideology of Victorian progressionism, and was used to avoid the materialism implicated in Darwinism. Through investigating Wallace's approach, we may realize how progressionism had worked as the bridge between science and religion in Victorian Age. Key Words: A. R. Wallace, evolutionism, spiritualism, Victorian progressionism ∗ Department of Philosophy, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China. E-mail: [email protected] Journal of Cambridge Studies 17 1. INTRODUCTION Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Robert Darwin independently discovered the principle of natural selection and their articles were announced to scientific community by a joint publication, on 1st July 1858. It’s the starting point of the Darwinian revolution or as Peter Bowler put in his book, “the non-Darwinian revolution”. Stimulated by Wallace, Darwin finally finished and then published his Origin of Species, and got “the whole credit for one of the most liberating advances in scientific thought”, as Wallace “agreed of his own free will to play moon to Darwin’s sun.”1 Considered as a Darwinist, Wallace positively defended Darwinism in his time, and published a book named Darwinism (1889). -
The Age of the Earth
The Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism Volume 1 Print Reference: Volume 1:I, Page 43-48 Article 10 1986 The Age of the Earth Donald E. Chittick Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/icc_proceedings DigitalCommons@Cedarville provides a publication platform for fully open access journals, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. However, the opinions and sentiments expressed by the authors of articles published in our journals do not necessarily indicate the endorsement or reflect the views of DigitalCommons@Cedarville, the Centennial Library, or Cedarville University and its employees. The authors are solely responsible for the content of their work. Please address questions to [email protected]. Browse the contents of this volume of The Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism. Recommended Citation Chittick, Donald E. (1986) "The Age of the Earth," The Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism: Vol. 1 , Article 10. Available at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/icc_proceedings/vol1/iss1/10 THE AGE OF THE EARTH Dr. Donald E. Chittick c 1986 Route 2, Box 194 Newberg, OR 97132 ABSTRACT Modern science had its roots in the Biblical Reformation, and early modern scientists believed in a young earth. Old earth proposals sparked by Leyell and Darwin became politically motivated, and opposition to Kelvin's science was accepted as the church swung toward these proposals. Unscientific schemes such as the Day-Age and Gap theories and Theistic evolution are defined. Scientific compatibility with a young earth is shown. INTRODUCTION From presenting many seminars and lectures dealing with the topic of creation and evolution, I have repeatedly observed that almost Invariably someone will ask a question about dating methods and the age of the earth. -
Climate Delusion: Hurricane Sandy, Sea Level Rise, and 1840S Catastrophism
Article Climate Delusion: Hurricane Sandy, Sea Level Rise, and 1840s Catastrophism Gillen D’Arcy Wood Department of English, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; [email protected] Received: 23 May 2019; Accepted: 30 July 2019; Published: 1 August 2019 Abstract: The existential global threat of inundation of the world’s low-lying port cities necessitates a radical shift in the dominant climate framework of sustainability and resilience to include catastrophism. Scientists and social scientists of the industrial crisis decade of the 1840s, arguably the Anthropocene’s historical origin, offer a model for theorizing twenty-first century catastrophe in both geophysical and social terms, as in the case study of Hurricane Sandy presented here. Keywords: climate change; catastrophism; sea level rise; Hurricane Sandy; the 1840s; the Anthropocene; Friederich Engels; Joseph Adhémar 1. Introduction In the summer of 2015, I vacationed with my family on the New Jersey Shore. Unfortunately, we selected exactly the portion of beach that the Army Corps of Engineers had reached in its post- Hurricane Sandy restoration project. In late October 2012, Sandy formed as a hurricane in the Caribbean, before wheeling north along the Atlantic seaboard as a massive, highly unusual “superstorm” with wind gusts of 90 mph. In the aftermath of the devastation, Governor Chris Christie, his eyes on a White House bid, vowed to rebuild every inch of Jersey’s battered coast. Almost three years later, the Army Engineers had established a ship-sized barge a few hundred yards out to sea from our beachside apartment. From 6:00 in the morning until sundown, its industrial engines dredged sand from the seafloor via a pipeline onto the shore, where bulldozers shifted it noisily about, like infant giants building sandcastles. -
Uniformitarianism
INTERACTIVE The Set-Up SCIENCE NOTEBOOK Notebook Requirements: • At least 70 pages. • College Rule • Single Subject If you do NOT have a notebook, take notes on what needs to be put on each page, and do the Set-up for Homework. NUMBER EACH PAGE The inside cover is (0)-zero Then (1) right Flip The EVEN is always on the LEFT Then (2) left and (3) right Flip And the ODD is always on the RIGHT when you Then (4) left and (5) right FLIP! And so on… until the end! NB Page 1 Student Name: ___________ Class: (Biology- CP or H) Period: Semester: 2nd Notebook Rules: 1. 2. Inside Cover 3. 4. 5. Quick Write: NB Page 3 NB Page 2 Notebook Notebook pages are pages are always always EVEN on ODD on the LEFT the RIGHT PAGE 1 (TOP HALF ONLY): NOTEBOOK RULES Student Name: ___________ Class: (Biology- CP or H) Period: Semester: 2nd Notebook Rules: 1. Bring the Notebook EVERYDAY to class 2. No RIPPING pages, but it’s okay to add EXTENSIONS 3. Follow the page format and stay on assigned page. 4. Clean, Clear, & Colorful 5. When in doubt, Ask the teacher. CLASS EXPECTATIONS Quick Write Bottom Half What do you want this semester to look like? What role are you going to play in maintaining a respectful classroom? NBpg 2 Unit 5 Evolution Table of Contents Page Score 1 Notebook Information /10 2 Table of Contents /10 3 DSJ /10 4 Uniformitarianism Vs Catastrophic Activity /10 5 Changes to our Earth Notes /10 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NB Page 5 NB Page 4 Uniformitarianism Vs Catastrophism Earth’s Story: Video 1: Catastrophism: Video 2: Evidence: Examples: Uniformitarianism Evidence: Examples: Real Life: Video 1 NB Page 4 Questions 1 & 2 – What are three things you saw in video 1? – What do all of the clips in video 1 have in common? Video 2 NB Page 4 Questions 3 & 4 – What are three things you saw in video 2? – What do both videos have in common? Changes to our Earth NB Page 5 Earth’s Story – For 1000s of years humans have wondered about Earth’s history. -
"Struggle for Existence,"
ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. By Charles Darwin, M.A., Fellow Of The Royal, Geological, Linnaean, Etc., Societies; Author Of 'Journal Of Researches During H.M.S. Beagle's Voyage Round The World.' From the First Edition LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1859. Down, Bromley, Kent, October 1st, 1859. "But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this—we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws." W. Whewell: Bridgewater Treatise. "To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both." Bacon: Advancement of Learning. INTRODUCTION When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species—that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it.