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Following the Trail of Ants: an Examination of the Work of E.O
Sacred Heart University DigitalCommons@SHU Writing Across the Curriculum Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) 2012 Following The rT ail Of Ants: An Examination Of The orW k Of E.O. Wilson Samantha Kee Sacred Heart University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/wac_prize Part of the Biodiversity Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Entomology Commons, Other Genetics and Genomics Commons, Philosophy of Science Commons, Religion Commons, and the Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons Recommended Citation Kee, Samantha, "Following The rT ail Of Ants: An Examination Of The orkW Of E.O. Wilson" (2012). Writing Across the Curriculum. 2. http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/wac_prize/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) at DigitalCommons@SHU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Writing Across the Curriculum by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@SHU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Samantha Kee RS 299-Writing With Public Purpose Dr. Brian Stiltner March 2, 2012 Following the trail of ants An examination of the work of E.O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson was a born naturalist, in every sense of the word. As a child growing up in Alabama, he collected and studied species of snakes, flies, and the insect that became the basis of his life’s work, ants. He made a goal to record every species of ant that could be found in Alabama—a childhood project that would eventually lead to his first scientific publication. By age 13, Wilson discovered a red, non-native ant in a local town in Alabama, and by the time he entered the University of Alabama, the fire ant had become a significant threat to the state’s agriculture. -
Raising-Darwins-Consciousness.Pdf
RAISING DARWIN'S CONSCIOUSNESS Female Sexuality and the Prehominid Origins of Patriarchy Sarah Blaffer Hrdy University of California, Davis Sociobiologists and feminists agree that men in patriarchal social systems seek to control females, but sociobiologists go further, using Darwin's theory of sexual selection and Trivers's ideas on parental investment to explain why males should attempt to control female sexuality. From this perspective, the stage for the development under some conditions of patriarchal social systems was set over the course of primate evolution. Sexual selection encompasses both competition between males and female choice. But in applying this theory to our "lower origins" (pre- hominid ancestors), Darwin assumed that choices were made by essen- tially "coy" females. I argue here that female solicitation of multiple males (either simultaneously or sequentially, depending on the breeding system) characterized prehominid females; this prehominid legacy of cy- clical sexual assertiveness, itself possibly a female counter-strategy to male efforts to control the timing of female reproduction, generated fur- ther male counter-strategies. This dialectic had important implications for emerging hominid mating systems, human evolution, and the devel- opment of patriarchal arrangements in some human societies. For homi- nid males who will invest in offspring, there would be powerful selection for emotions, behaviors, and customs that ensure them certainty of pater- nity. The sexual modesty that so struck Darwin can be explained as a recent evolved or learned (perhaps both) adaptation in women to avoid penalties imposed by patrilines on daughters and mates who failed to conform to the patriline's prevailing norms for their sex. -
Evolution, Politics and Law
Valparaiso University Law Review Volume 38 Number 4 Summer 2004 pp.1129-1248 Summer 2004 Evolution, Politics and Law Bailey Kuklin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Bailey Kuklin, Evolution, Politics and Law, 38 Val. U. L. Rev. 1129 (2004). Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol38/iss4/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Valparaiso University Law School at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Valparaiso University Law Review by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Kuklin: Evolution, Politics and Law VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW VOLUME 38 SUMMER 2004 NUMBER 4 Article EVOLUTION, POLITICS AND LAW Bailey Kuklin* I. Introduction ............................................... 1129 II. Evolutionary Theory ................................. 1134 III. The Normative Implications of Biological Dispositions ......................... 1140 A . Fact and Value .................................... 1141 B. Biological Determinism ..................... 1163 C. Future Fitness ..................................... 1183 D. Cultural N orm s .................................. 1188 IV. The Politics of Sociobiology ..................... 1196 A. Political Orientations ......................... 1205 B. Political Tactics ................................... 1232 V . C onclusion ................................................. 1248 I. INTRODUCTION -
The Theoretical Foundations of Evolutionary Psychology
3GC01 06/09/2015 12:40:42 Page 3 Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2015). The theoretical foundations of evolutionary psychology. In Buss, D. M. (Ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Second edition. Volume 1: Foundations. (pp. 3-87). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. CHAPTER 1 The Theoretical Foundations of Evolutionary Psychology JOHN TOOBY and LEDA COSMIDES THE EMERGENCE OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY: WHAT IS AT STAKE? HE THEORY OF evolution by natural selection has revolutionary implications for understanding the design of the human mind and brain, as Darwin himself was Tthe first to recognize (Darwin, 1859). Indeed, a principled understanding of the network of causation that built the functional architecture of the human species offers the possibility of transforming the study of humanity into a natural science capable of precision and rapid progress. Yet, more than a century and a half after The Origin of Species was published, many of the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences continue to be grounded on assumptions that evolutionarily informed researchers know to be false; the rest have only in the past few decades set to work on the radical reformulations of their disciplines necessary to make them consistent with findings in the evolutionary sciences, information theory, computer science, physics, the neuro- sciences, molecular and cellular biology, genetics, behavioral ecology, hunter-gatherer studies, biological anthropology, primatology, and so on (Pinker, 1997, 2002; Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). Evolutionary psychology is the long-forestalled scientific attempt to assemble out of the disjointed, fragmentary, and mutually contradictory human disciplines a single, logically integrated research framework for the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences—a framework that not only incorporates the evolu- tionary sciences and information theory on a full and equal basis, but that systemati- cally works out all the revisions in existing belief and research practice that such a synthesis requires (Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). -
Our Social Discontents: Revisiting Fromm's Redemptive Psychoanalytic Critique
KRITIKE VOLUME TWELVE NUMBER ONE (JUNE 2018) 277-292 Article Our Social Discontents: Revisiting Fromm’s Redemptive Psychoanalytic Critique Ian Raymond B. Pacquing Abstract: Modern society is marked with utmost ambivalence. There is the utmost desire to be free, creative, and productive. Yet, our creative and productive desires trap us and now control our own freedom to become. Couple this inconsistency with the rapid sociostructural changes, fragmentation of traditions, and dissolution of communal well-being, what we have is a life of uncertainty. It is a life debased from its very ontological foundation with the transmission of technorationalities of the capitalist industry. In modernity, we could no longer speak of individuality and subjectivity since the very historical thread that serve as its foundation is now wavered towards accumulation and possession of the capital. Moreover, this overleaning towards the capital deadens us unconsciously that we mistake this for reality. The market ideology with all its rationalizations reifies human consciousness to the extent that we consider the technorationalities as the ontological normative structure. As a result, there is a growing dislocation of subjectivity which leads to neurotic social behaviors and inner social contradictions. As a result, we have our own social discontents. It is then the aim of this paper to ponder on the psychosocial effects of the market economy. I argue that there is a need to look at the effects of this economic system that perpetually delineate subjective experiences and plunge humanity into incontrovertible pseudo images. It is at this point that Fromm’s radical psychosocial interpretation of society becomes binding. -
Universityof Michiganlibrary
of Michigan UNIVERSITYextra edition! LIBRARYwww.lib.umich.edu seven cents or best offer READ! READ! READ! THE SOCIAL SCIENCES * * * The Origins of Totalitarianism Salt: A World History Descartes’ Baby POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Hannah Arendt (Schocken, 2004) Mark Kurlansky (Penguin, 2003) Paul Bloom (Basic, 2004) This rather bland food item is a life-sustaining necessity. Psychologist Bloom ‘s account of human nature contends that Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist The classic analysis of totalitarian political movements; as relevant today as when it was first published. Without salt as a preservative, humans could not have people are natural-born dualists and discusses how we divide the Explores the Hidden Side of Everything embarked on epic explorations of continents and oceans. Salt world into physical objects and mental states and how this leads Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow, 2006) The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal has played a pivotal role in economic trade, territorial wars, to such uniquely human traits as humor, disgust, religion, art and This best selling economics book (yes, though hard to and the death rituals of several cultures. morality. believe, an econ book topped the best-sellers lists for months) Tradition George McGovern (Simon & Schuster, 2004) “deconstruct[s] everything from the organizational structure of Vegetarian America: A History Strangers at the Gates: New Immigrants in Urban America drug-dealing gangs to baby-naming patterns.” An intellectual history of the development of liberal thought in America. Karen & Michael Iacobbo (Praeger, 2004) Roger Waldinger (Editor) (University of California Press, 2001) The Iacobbos’ book is an excellent introduction to the Waldinger’s assembled collection of essays on the status and Microtrends: the Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big vegetarian movement in the United States. -
Spirituality and Religiosity on Compassion and Altruism
Running Head: SPIRITUALITY, COMPASSION, AND ALTRUISM The Social Significance of Spirituality: New Perspectives on the Compassion-Altruism Relationship Laura R. Saslow, University of California, San Francisco Oliver P. John, University of California, Berkeley Paul K. Piff, University of California, Berkeley Robb Willer, University of California, Berkeley Esther Wong, University of California, Berkeley Emily A. Impett, University of Toronto, Canada Aleksandr Kogan, University of Cambridge, UK Olga Antonenko, University of California, Berkeley Katharine Clark, University of Colorado, Boulder Matthew Feinberg, University of California, Berkeley Dacher Keltner, University of California, Berkeley and Sarina R. Saturn, Oregon State University Author’s Note: This work was funded by a Metanexus Grant to Dacher Keltner and funding from the Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging made possible through the National Institute of Aging grant P30 AG01283. We gratefully acknowledge our wonderful research assistants for their help with data collection. We thank Frank Sulloway and Christina Maslach for their helpful comments. 0 Running Head: SPIRITUALITY, COMPASSION, AND ALTRUISM Abstract In the current research we tested a comprehensive model of spirituality, religiosity, compassion, and altruism, investigating the independent effects of spirituality and religiosity on compassion and altruism. We hypothesized that, even though spirituality and religiosity are closely related, spirituality and religiosity would have different and unique associations with compassion and altruism. In Study 1 and 2 we documented that more spiritual individuals experience and show greater compassion. The link between religiosity and compassion was no longer significant after controlling for the impact of spirituality. Compassion has the capacity to motivate people to transcend selfish motives and act altruistically towards strangers. -
Bringing in Darwin Bradley A. Thayer
Bringing in Darwin Bradley A. Thayer Evolutionary Theory, Realism, and International Politics Efforts to develop a foundation for scientiªc knowledge that would unite the natural and social sci- ences date to the classical Greeks. Given recent advances in genetics and evolu- tionary theory, this goal may be closer than ever.1 The human genome project has generated much media attention as scientists reveal genetic causes of dis- eases and some aspects of human behavior. And although advances in evolu- tionary theory may have received less attention, they are no less signiªcant. Edward O. Wilson, Roger Masters, and Albert Somit, among others, have led the way in using evolutionary theory and social science to produce a synthesis for understanding human behavior and social phenomena.2 This synthesis posits that human behavior is simultaneously and inextricably a result of evo- lutionary and environmental causes. The social sciences, including the study of international politics, may build upon this scholarship.3 In this article I argue that evolutionary theory can improve the realist theory of international politics. Traditional realist arguments rest principally on one of two discrete ultimate causes, or intellectual foundations. The ªrst is Reinhold Niebuhr’s argument that humans are evil. The second is grounded in the work Bradley A. Thayer is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota—Duluth. I am grateful to Mlada Bukovansky, Stephen Chilton, Christopher Layne, Michael Mastanduno, Roger Masters, Paul Sharp, Alexander Wendt, Mike Winnerstig, and Howard Wriggins for their helpful comments. I thank Nathaniel Fick, David Hawkins, Jeremy Joseph, Christopher Kwak, Craig Nerenberg, and Jordana Phillips for their able research assistance. -
Evolutionary Psychology As a Unifying Framework and Meta-Theory
Part V | Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Ultimate explanations: Evolutionary psychology as a unifying framework and meta-theory The term ‘evolutionary psychology’ (EP) was coined during “lengthy and intensive debates about how to apply evolution to behavior” (Tooby & Cosmides, 2005, p. 15) between Martin Daly, Margo Wilson, Don Symons, John Tooby, Leda Cosmides, and David Buss in the 1980s. It is a relatively young and developing way of thinking in psychology that can serve as a meta-theoretical framework, as it builds directly on the foundations of biology. More spe- cifically, EP is based on the only scientific explanation for the complexity of earthly life forms, namely evolution by natural selection. In the scientific community, it is largely ac- knowledged that humans are a product of evolution by natural selection too. We are mammals belonging to the branch of the tree of life called primates and our closest living relatives are the chimpanzees and bonobos, with whom we share a common ancestor that lived some 6 to 7 million years ago. Though such long time spans are beyond our ‘natural’ capacity to comprehend, consider this: the process of evolving from a light-sensitive cell to a human eye can happen in fewer than 400,000 years (Nilsson & Pelger, 1994). Researchers named our species homo sapiens and contemporary researchers have deter- mined our ‘start date’ to be at least 300,000 years ago, based on new homo sapiens findings in Morocco (Hublin et al., 2017). ‘Start date’ is a bit of a misleading term, as there is of course no ‘sudden appearance,’ but a very slow, invisible, and gradual change. -
The Natures of Universal Moralities, 75 Brook
Brooklyn Law Review Volume 75 Issue 2 SYMPOSIUM: Article 4 Is Morality Universal, and Should the Law Care? 2009 The aN tures of Universal Moralities Bailey Kuklin Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr Recommended Citation Bailey Kuklin, The Natures of Universal Moralities, 75 Brook. L. Rev. (2009). Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr/vol75/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Brooklyn Law Review by an authorized editor of BrooklynWorks. The Natures of Universal Moralities Bailey Kuklin† One of the abiding lessons from postmodernism is that reason does not go all the way down.1 In the context of this symposium, one cannot deductively derive a universal morality from incontestible moral primitives,2 or practical reason alone.3 Instead, even reasoned moral systems must ultimately be grounded on intuition,4 a sense of justice. The question then † Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School. I wish to thank the presenters and participants of the Brooklyn Law School Symposium entitled “Is Morality Universal, and Should the Law Care?” and those at the Tenth SEAL Scholarship Conference. Further thanks go to Brooklyn Law School for supporting this project with a summer research stipend. 1 “Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.” JEAN-FRANCOIS LYOTARD, THE POSTMODERN CONDITION: A REPORT ON KNOWLEDGE xxiv (Geoff Bennington & Brian Massumi trans., 1984). “If modernity is viewed with Weberian optimism as the project of rationalisation of the life-world, an era of material progress, social emancipation and scientific innovation, the postmodern is derided as chaotic, catastrophic, nihilistic, the end of good order.” COSTAS DOUZINAS ET AL., POSTMODERN JURISPRUDENCE 16 (1991). -
Recent Work on Human Nature: Beyond Traditional Essences
Philosophy Compass 9/9 (2014): 642–652, 10.1111/phc3.12159 Recent Work on Human Nature: Beyond Traditional Essences Maria Kronfeldner1*,NeilRoughley2 and Georg Toepfer3 1Bielefeld University 2University of Duisburg-Essen 3Berlin Centre for Literary and Cultural Research Abstract Recent philosophical work on the concept of human nature disagrees on how to respond to the Darwinian challenge, according to which biological species do not have traditional essences. Three broad kinds of reactions can be distinguished: (1) conservative intrinsic essentialism,whichdefends essences in the traditional sense, (2) eliminativism, which suggests dropping the concept of human nature altogether, and (3) constructive approaches, which argue that revisions can generate sensible concepts of human nature beyond traditional essences. The different constructive approaches pick out one or two of the three epistemic roles that are fused in traditional essentialist conceptions of human nature: descriptive (descriptivism), explanatory (explanativism), definitional (taxonomic relationalism), or explanatory and definitional (property cluster essentialism). These turns towards diverging epistemic roles are best interpreted pluralistically: there is a plurality of concepts of human nature that have to be clearly distinguished, each with a legitimate role in respective scientific contexts. 1. Two Dimensions Talk of human nature traditionally picks out intricate theoretical and also deep practical philosophical issues. It is the boundaries towards animals on the one side and machines or superhuman creatures like gods on the other side that historically created the space of under- standing important for the concept of human nature. Talk of ‘human nature’ thus marks a self-understanding that is anchored by our deepest fears (bestiality) and hopes (salvation), in part even within science, as Proctor (2003) indicates for questions about the origin of humans. -
Sociobiology Is a Controversial New Field of Study, Defined by Its Most
28 SELFiSH GENES, AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR: A BlO-CULTURAL CRITIQUE Jon Marks Sociobiology is a controversial new field of study, defined by its most prolific spokesman as "the systematic study of thebiological basis of all social behavior" (Wilson 1975a:k). Although much excellent work has been done in this field within the areas of entomology and ornithology, the application of sociobiology to humans (Wilson 1975a:5k7ff;Wilson1975b; Hamilton 1975;etc.)has generated considerable acrimonious debate (Caplan 1978), This paper represents an attempt to present sociobiology and social anthropology fairly, and to evaluate the central arguments of sociobiology within a synthetic framework of biology and social anthropology. My purpose in this paper is to explore the foundations upon which human sociobiology is constructed; to demonstrate that human sociobiology is not so much a more scientific approach to anthropology as itis a novel philosophical ap- proach; and to evaluate critically the value of such an approach in the study of human behavior. The Genesis of Sociobiology Classical evolutionary works tended to see natural selection, and thus evolution occurring primarily with respect to the individual: the original definition of natural selection was "this preservation of indivi- dual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious" (Darwin 1962 [18721:91). However, selection also operated at higher levels: "Natural selection. ..will adapt the structure of each indi- vidual for the benefit of the community;if the community profits by the selected change" (Darwin 1962 [18721:96), With the introduction of genetics Marks 29 into evolutionary theory, this posed a problem. Evolutionary geneticists viewed evolution in terms of altered gene frequencies across generations: however, those genes are expressed in individuals, ft is the individual (i.e., the phenotype) which is exposed to the rigors of the environment, resulting in different fitnesses between individuals.