Philosophy of Biology: A Very Short Introduction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir Okasha
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Philosophy Of Biology ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
The Core ◽  
Nature Vs Nurture ◽  
Core Issues ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Philosophy of Biology: A Very Short Introduction outlines the core issues with which contemporary philosophers of biology grapple. Over the last forty years the philosophy of biology has emerged as an important sub-discipline of the philosophy of science. Addressing difficult conceptual issues that arise within the biological sciences, it also encompasses areas where biology has impinged on traditional philosophical questions, such as free-will, essentialism, and nature vs nurture. The book also explores topics such as the logic of Darwinian evolution; the concepts of function and design; the nature of species; and the debate over adaptationism.

scholarly journals Leontius of Byzantium and the Concept of Enhypostaton

1970 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-218
Author(s):  
Anna Zhyrkova
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Conceptual Content ◽  
The Core ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Core Issues ◽  
Philosophical Questions

The concept of “enhypostaton” was introduced into theological discourse during the sixth-century Christological debates with the aim of justifying the unitary subjectivity of Christ by reclassifying Christ’s human nature as ontically non-independent. The coinage of the term is commonly ascribed to Leontius of Byzantium. Its conceptual content has been recognized by contemporary scholarship as relevant to the core issues of Christology, as well as possessing significance for such philosophical questions as individuation and the nature of individual entityhood. Even so, despite its role in the formation of classical Christological thought, the notion of “enhypostaton” is often regarded as obscure and not clearly defined. This paper aims to shed some light on the meaning of Leontius’ conception of it, in respect of its specifically philosophical import.

scholarly journals Laws in Philosophy of Info-Computationalism

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Shanshan Fan
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
The Core ◽  
Creative Products ◽  
Core Issues

What are laws of nature? This issue has always been one of the core issues of philosophy of science. Info-computationalism uses algorithms and information to explain laws of nature, and analyses its nature from the perspective and invariance, which opens up a new path for laws of nature. Therefore, this paper, based on the theory of info-computationalism, compares them to Cartwright’s concept of laws of nature. It is found that we can follow the laws in computers to understand the laws of nature, and regard the laws of nature as human, metaphorical, prescriptive and creative products.

scholarly journals Reflections on a footnote: implications for the study of emotions in animals

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 286-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Otta
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Scientific Journal ◽  
Behavioral Neuroscience ◽  
The Core ◽  
Broad Domain ◽  
Core Issues

<p>A footnote (FN) originally submitted as a comment to the article "Parsing Reward" led me to write this essay. The comment was rejected by the editor of a prestigious scientific journal in the area of behavioral neuroscience with the suggestion that it would be more appropriate for an "idle talk". I believe that the core issues involved are important to address explicitly in a debate within the broad domain of the frontiers of human and biological sciences. The protagonists involved in the didactic episode of the FN, whose articles and books I have been reading over the years, are leaders in the field of neuroscience. In this essay the episode is historically contextualized and discussed in terms of potential implications for ethology, psychology and neuroscience.</p>

scholarly journals Laws in Philosophy of Info-Computationalism

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Shanshan Fan
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
The Core ◽  
Creative Products ◽  
Core Issues

What are laws of nature? This issue has always been one of the core issues of philosophy of science. Info-computationalism uses algorithms and information to explain laws of nature, and analyses its nature from the perspective and invariance, which opens up a new path for laws of nature. Therefore, this paper, based on the theory of info-computationalism, compares them to Cartwright’s concept of laws of nature. It is found that we can follow the laws in computers to understand the laws of nature, and regard the laws of nature as human, metaphorical, prescriptive and creative products.

Serial Homology as a Challenge to Evolutionary Theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Serial Homology ◽  
The Core ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
Experimental Approaches ◽  
Evo Devo ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Development And Evolution

The problem of the repeated parts of organisms was at the center of the biological sciences as early as the first decades of the 19th century. Some concepts and theories (e.g., serial homology, unity of plan, or colonial theory) introduced in order to explain the similarity as well as the differences between the repeated structures of an organism were reused throughout the 19th and the 20th century, in spite of the fundamental changes during this long period that saw the diffusion of the evolutionary theory, the rise of experimental approaches, and the emergence of new fields and disciplines. Interestingly, this conceptual heritage was at the core of any attempt to unify the problems of inheritance, development, and evolution, in particular in the last decades, with the rise of “evo-devo.” This chapter examines the conditions of this theoretical continuity and the challenges it brings out for the current evolutionary sciences.

scholarly journals Francis Hutcheson on Liberty

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 121-142
Author(s):  
Ruth Boeker
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Character Development ◽  
Francis Hutcheson ◽  
Detailed Treatment ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
Philosophical Questions ◽  
Independent Thinking

AbstractThis paper aims to reconstruct Francis Hutcheson's thinking about liberty. Since he does not offer a detailed treatment of philosophical questions concerning liberty in his mature philosophical writings I turn to a textbook on metaphysics. We can assume that he prepared the textbook during the 1720s in Dublin. This textbook deserves more attention. First, it sheds light on Hutcheson's role as a teacher in Ireland and Scotland. Second, Hutcheson's contributions to metaphysical disputes are more original than sometimes assumed. To appreciate his independent thinking, I argue, it is helpful to take the intellectual debates in Ireland into consideration, including William King's defence of free will and discussions of Shaftesbury's views in Robert Molesworth's intellectual circle. Rather than taking a stance on the philosophical disputes about liberty, I argue that Hutcheson aims to shift the focus of the debates towards practical questions concerning control of desire, cultivation of habits, and character development.

“Leaving No One Behind” as a Site of Contestation and Reinterpretation

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr ◽  
Thea Smaavik Hegstad
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
The Core ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
Social Opportunities ◽  
A Site ◽  
Core Issues ◽  
Distribution Of Income

Abstract One of the most important elements of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs is the strong commitment to inclusive development, and “leaving no one behind” has emerged as a central theme of the agenda. How did this consensus come about? And what does this term mean and how is it being interpreted? This matters because SDGs shift international norms. Global goals exert influence on policy and action of governments and stakeholders in development operates through discourse. So the language used in formulating the UN Agenda is a terrain of active contestation. This paper aims to explain the politics that led to this term as a core theme. It argues that LNOB was promoted to frame the SDG inequality agenda as inclusive development, focusing on the exclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups from social opportunities, deflecting attention from the core issues of distribution of income and wealth, and the challenge of “extreme inequality.” The term is adequately vague so as to accommodate wide ranging interpretations. Through a content analysis of LNOB in 43 VNRs, the paper finds that the majority of country strategies identify LNOB as priority to the very poor, and identify it with a strategy for social protection. This narrow interpretation does not respond to the ambition of the 2030 Agenda for transformative change, and the principles of human rights approaches laid out.

Equality and Equity in Chinese Higher Education in the Post-massification Era: An Analysis Based on Chinese Scholarly Literature

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Qiang Zha
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Bibliometric Analysis ◽  
Chinese Higher Education ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Core ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Core Issues ◽  
Over Time

Abstract This paper examines several research questions relating to equality and equity in Chinese higher education via an extended literature review, which in turn sheds light on evolving scholarly explorations into this theme. First, in the post-massification era, has the Chinese situation of equality and equity in higher education improved or deteriorated since the late 1990s? Second, what are the core issues with respect to equality and equity in Chinese higher education? Third, how have those core issues evolved or changed over time and what does the evolution indicate and entail? Methodologically, this paper uses a bibliometric analysis to detect the topical hotspots in scholarly literature and their changes over time. The study then investigates each of those topical terrains against their temporal contexts in order to gain insights into the core issues.

Genealogy of Colonial Discourse: Hindu Traditions and the Limits of European Representation

2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raf Gelders
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
The Core ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Eastern Cultures ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Core Issues

In the aftermath of Edward Said's Orientalism (1978), European representations of Eastern cultures have returned to preoccupy the Western academy. Much of this work reiterates the point that nineteenth-century Orientalist scholarship was a corpus of knowledge that was implicated in and reinforced colonial state formation in India. The pivotal role of native informants in the production of colonial discourse and its subsequent use in servicing the material adjuncts of the colonial state notwithstanding, there has been some recognition in South Asian scholarship of the moot point that the colonial constructs themselves built upon an existing, precolonial European discourse on India and its indigenous culture. However, there is as yet little scholarly consensus or indeed literature on the core issues of how and when these edifices came to be formed, or the intellectual and cultural axes they drew from. This genealogy of colonial discourse is the subject of this essay. Its principal concerns are the formalization of a conceptual unit in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, called “Hinduism” today, and the larger reality of European culture and religion that shaped the contours of representation.

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