scholarly journals Evolutionary biology meets consciousness: essay review of Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka’s The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Browning ◽  
Walter Veit
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Essay Review ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Evolution Of Consciousness ◽  
Initial Resistance ◽  
Metaphysical Claim ◽  
Mode Of Being

AbstractIn this essay, we discuss Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka’s The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul from an interdisciplinary perspective. Constituting perhaps the longest treatise on the evolution of consciousness, Ginsburg and Jablonka unite their expertise in neuroscience and biology to develop a beautifully Darwinian account of the dawning of subjective experience. Though it would be impossible to cover all its content in a short book review, here we provide a critical evaluation of their two key ideas—the role of Unlimited Associative Learning in the evolution of, and detection of, consciousness and a metaphysical claim about consciousness as a mode of being—in a manner that will hopefully overcome some of the initial resistance of potential readers to tackle a book of this length.

Electron Microscopy of Metal-Matrix Composites

1970 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 404-405
Author(s):  
A. Lawley ◽  
M. R. Pinnel ◽  
A. Pattnaik
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Metal Matrix Composites ◽  
Metal Matrix ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Elastic Behavior ◽  
Matrix Composites ◽  
Directionally Solidified ◽  
Fracture Characteristics ◽  
Broad Program

As part of a broad program on composite materials, the role of the interface on the micromechanics of deformation of metal-matrix composites is being studied. The approach is to correlate elastic behavior, micro and macroyielding, flow, and fracture behavior with associated structural detail (dislocation substructure, fracture characteristics) and stress-state. This provides an understanding of the mode of deformation from an atomistic viewpoint; a critical evaluation can then be made of existing models of composite behavior based on continuum mechanics. This paper covers the electron microscopy (transmission, fractography, scanning microscopy) of two distinct forms of composite material: conventional fiber-reinforced (aluminum-stainless steel) and directionally solidified eutectic alloys (aluminum-copper). In the former, the interface is in the form of a compound and/or solid solution whereas in directionally solidified alloys, the interface consists of a precise crystallographic boundary between the two constituents of the eutectic.

The Role of Distress Disclosure Tendencies in the Experience and Expression of Laboratory-Induced Sadness

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey H. Kahn ◽  
Daniel W. Cox ◽  
A. Myfanwy Bakker ◽  
Julia I. O’Loughlin ◽  
Agnieszka M. Kotlarczyk
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Laboratory Research ◽  
Emotion Words ◽  
Distress Disclosure ◽  
Computerized Text Analysis

Abstract. The benefits of talking with others about unpleasant emotions have been thoroughly investigated, but individual differences in distress disclosure tendencies have not been adequately integrated within theoretical models of emotion. The purpose of this laboratory research was to determine whether distress disclosure tendencies stem from differences in emotional reactivity or differences in emotion regulation. After completing measures of distress disclosure tendencies, social desirability, and positive and negative affect, 84 participants (74% women) were video recorded while viewing a sadness-inducing film clip. Participants completed post-film measures of affect and were then interviewed about their reactions to the film; these interviews were audio recorded for later coding and computerized text analysis. Distress disclosure tendencies were not predictive of the subjective experience of emotion, but they were positively related to facial expressions of sadness and happiness. Distress disclosure tendencies also predicted judges’ ratings of the verbal disclosure of emotion during the interview, but self-reported disclosure and use of positive and negative emotion words were not associated with distress disclosure tendencies. The authors present implications of this research for integrating individual differences in distress disclosure with models of emotion.

Creating Shared Resilience: The Role of the Church in a Hopeful Future by David M. Boan and Josh Ayers. Langham Global Library, 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 99-102
Author(s):  
Pieter Nijssen
Keyword(s):  
The Church

Book review of Creating Shared Resilience.  

Philosophical and Pedagogical Views of Yu. F. Samarin

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
Lev E. Shaposhnikov
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
The Government ◽  
Role Of Religion

The paper analyses the evolution of Yu. Samarin’s ideas from rationalism to “holistic knowledge”. Special attention is paid to the philosopher’s conceptualization of the key role of religion for a nation. The author also examines the scholar’s position concerning the promotion of patriotism as an important impetus for social development. Emphasis is made on analyzing the interaction of universal and national aspects in the educational process, as well as on the value of national identity in the field of humanities. The article also presents Yu. Samarin’s critical evaluation of the government educational policy and his suggestions on increasing its effectiveness. The author notes the relevance of Yu. Samarin’s views for the contemporary philosophical and educational context.

Book Review: Promoting Community Renewal through Civic Literacy and Service Learning

NASPA Journal ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael H. Persons ◽  
David Lisman
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Community Renewal ◽  
Academic Instruction ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Government ◽  
Civic Literacy

This is an optimistic, and useful, book written at a pessimistic time. In an era when the nation faces many social problems - including alienation from the government and work, the fragmentation of the family, and an expanding materialism - this book promoting civic literacy approaches to service learning and seeks to help educators in their efforts to redefine the role of civics in contemporary society. The civic literacy approach to service learning is defined as pedagogy that combines community service and academic instruction and that focuses on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsiblity. The editors challenge community colleges to act as catalysts for a national movement of community renewal, suggesting that they may be our best hope for finding ways to solve our social problems.

It Keeps Me Seeking

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Briggs ◽  
Hans Halvorson ◽  
Andrew Steane
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Good Argument ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Relationship Of

Two scientists and a philosopher aim to show how science both enriches and is enriched by Christian faith. The text is written around four themes: 1. God is a being to be known, not a hypothesis to be tested; 2. We set a high bar on what constitutes good argument; 3. Uncertainty is OK; 4. We are allowed to open up the window that the natural world offers us. This is not a work of apologetics. Rather, the text takes an overview of various themes and gives reactions and responses, intended to place science correctly as a valued component of the life of faith. The difference between philosophical analysis and theological reflection is expounded. Questions of human identity are addressed from philosophy, computer science, quantum physics, evolutionary biology and theological reflection. Contemporary physics reveals the subtle and open nature of physical existence, and offers lessons in how to learn and how to live with incomplete knowledge. The nature and role of miracles is considered. The ‘argument from design’ is critiqued, especially arguments from fine-tuning. Logical derivation from impersonal facts is not an appropriate route to a relationship of mutual trust. Mainstream evolutionary biology is assessed to be a valuable component of our understanding, but no exploratory process can itself fully account for the nature of what is discovered. To engage deeply in science is to seek truth and to seek a better future; it is also an activity of appreciation, as one may appreciate a work of art.

Limited Extended Inheritance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Merlin
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology

This chapter addresses the question of the extension of biological inheritance in the light of the fact that organisms inherit much more than DNA. Starting from recent proposals to reconceive the concept of biological inheritance, the chapter shows that one of the main assumptions in the literature is simply taken for granted without providing any evidence or argument to support it. The chapter first analyzes four distinctions—and the lessons drawn from them—and then proposes a redefinition of inheritance, which brings to the fore its privileged link with reproduction and the specific theoretical role of this concept in evolutionary biology.

Challenging the Modern Synthesis

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Modern Synthesis ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Original Essays ◽  
New Biology ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Orthodox View

Since its origin in the early 20th century, the modern synthesis theory of evolution has grown to represent the orthodox view on the process of organic evolution. It is a powerful and successful theory. Its defining features include the prominence it accords to genes in the explanation of development and inheritance, and the role of natural selection as the cause of adaptation. Since the advent of the 21st century, however, the modern synthesis has been subject to repeated and sustained challenges. In the last two decades, evolutionary biology has witnessed unprecedented growth in the understanding of those processes that underwrite the development of organisms and the inheritance of characters. The empirical advances usher in challenges to the conceptual foundations of evolutionary theory. Many current commentators charge that the new biology of the 21st century calls for a revision, extension, or wholesale rejection of the modern synthesis theory of evolution. Defenders of the modern synthesis maintain that the theory can accommodate the exciting new advances in biology, without forfeiting its central precepts. The original essays collected in this volume—by evolutionary biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of biology—survey and assess the various challenges to the modern synthesis arising from the new biology of the 21st century. Taken together, the essays cover a spectrum of views, from those that contend that the modern synthesis can rise to the challenges of the new biology, with little or no revision required, to those that call for the abandonment of the modern synthesis.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document