Homology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Comparative Anatomy ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
History Of Biology ◽  
Theoretical Context ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
History Of ◽  
Primitive Structure ◽  
Animal Anatomy ◽  
The Way

This article examines how the concept of homology is used as an expression of generality in the life sciences. Throughout its long history, homology expressed a quest for generality in the understanding of animal anatomy by suggesting that a diversity of forms resulted from modifications of a single ‘primitive’ structure. However, the meaning of this quest as well as the practices associated with it changed considerably with the different theoretical context of the life sciences. Thus, homology was an element of continuity in the history of biology and played a central role in some developments, particularly the emergence of evolutionary theory. This article first considers the use of homology in pre-transformist comparative anatomy and how it paved the way for the conceptualization of evolutionary theory before discussing the rise of new meanings of homology in genetics.

scholarly journals Evolutionary theories and the philosophy of science

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-246
Author(s):  
Georgy S. Levit ◽  
◽  
Uwe Hossfeld ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
History Of Biology ◽  
Darwinian Revolution ◽  
Common Descent ◽  
Scientific Revolutions ◽  
Research Programmes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mathematical Sciences

Philosophical theories proceeding from the history of physical-mathematical sciences are hardly applicable to the analysis of biosciences and evolutionary theory, in particular. This article briefly reconstructs the history of evolutionary theory beginning with its roots in the 19th century and up to the ultracontemporary concepts. Our objective is to outline the dynamics of Darwinism and anti-Darwinism from the perspective of the philosophy of science. We begin with the arguments of E. Mayr against the applicability of T. Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions to the history of biology. Mayr emphasized that Darwin’s publication of the Origin of Species in 1859 caused a genuine scientific revolution in biology, but it was not a Kuhnian revolution. Darwin coined several theories comprising a complex theoretical system. Mayr defined five most crucial of these theories: evolution as such, common descent of all organisms including man, gradualism, the multiplication of species explaining organic diversity, and, finally, the theory of natural selection. Distinguishing these theories is of great significance because their destiny in the history of biology substantially differed. The acceptance of one theory by the majority of the scientific community does not necessarily mean the acceptance of others. Another argument by Mayr proved that Darwin caused two scientific revolutions in biology, which Mayr referred to as the First and Second Darwinian Revolutions. The Second Darwinian Revolution happened already in the 20th century and Mayr himself was its active participant. Both revolutions followed Darwin’s concept of natural selection. The period between these two revolutions can be in no way described as “normal science” in Kuhnian terms. Our reconstruction of the history of evolutionary theory support Mayr’s anti-Kuhnian arguments. Furthermore, we claim that the “evolution of evolutionary theory” can be interpreted in terms of the modified research programmes theory by Imre Lakatos, though not in their “purity”, but rather modified and combined with certain aspects of Marxian-Hegelian dialectics.

scholarly journals R. Bukharaev’s poem “Prayer for the Cup” as a transcultural text

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 290-299
Author(s):  
Venera R. Amineva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Road ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Flow Transitions ◽  
Artistic Image ◽  
Homogeneous Culture ◽  
The Way

The characteristics of a new type of literary discourse having a feature of transculturality is given on the material of a poem “Prayer for the Cup” (1989–1991) a significant work by R. Bukharaev. A global, multicultural and international world is reconstructed in the poem, the existence of which is determined by the idea of transitivity — simultaneity and continuous flow, transitions from one into another: epochs, events, topos, languages. The hero of this world — is a lonely stranger, walking along the road of life, linearly opening the autonomous world of his “I”. the history of his spiritual travel correlates with the way of Christ full of suffering. The poem is full of historical and literary allusions and reminiscences from the world literary works, performing an identifying function. It is stated that identification performed by different elements of a literary text is carried out both “on the borders”, “in the interval” between different traditions, as well as “within the limits”, “inside” a homogeneous culture. Therefore, it is multiple, and meanwhile fundamentally incomplete, “split”, “fluid”, “intermediate”, “flickering”, probabilistically multiple, constantly questioning its status and revealing the growing plasticity of the subject, who is in the process of constantly recreating its own “I”. A new form of worldview, the product of which is a phenomenon of transcultural literature, is formed by synthesizing tendency. It functions within the artistic world of the poem and overcomes the boundaries between different types of culture and traditions, demonstrating the way new meanings overcome it, tolerant in their content and functions, can be appear from confrontation. An ability of an artistic image to endless mutual overflowing and transformations of meaning is a new quality of poetic language corresponding to the peculiarities of the transcultural type of artistic consciousness.

scholarly journals A morte como um ritual dos vivos. Emoções, deslocamentos, influência médica e processos de higienização

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (290) ◽  
pp. 342-363
Author(s):  
Magda Luíza Mascarello
Keyword(s):  
Central Region ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

Este artigo é resultado de uma pesquisa, cujo objetivo foi o de identificar as representações sobre a morte e seus rituais que circulam em nossa sociedade e os significados que se mobilizam nesse processo. Para isso, foram utilizados os mecanismos de marketing e comercialização de objetos fúnebres em funerárias da região central de Curitiba/PR e a etnografia de um velório. A morte é compreendida como um ritual que condensa simultaneamente a separação, a passagem e a agregação. O estudo revela como os significados, que emergem desses rituais, foram se transformando ao longo da história das sociedades ocidentais, passando por importantes processos de medicalização e, inclusive de higienização, que agora são mobilizados e comercializados pelas funerárias. Esses processos incidiram diretamente na forma como as pessoas expressam seus sentimentos frente à morte de alguém e à inevitabilidade de seu próprio morrer, bem como na maneira de organizar e compreender os cerimoniais fúnebres. Estas transformações estabelecem novos significados para as noções de público e privado, redefinindo suas fronteiras e constituindo novas configurações semânticas sobre a morte.Abstract: This article is the result of a piece of research the objective of which was to identify the representations about death and its rituals that circulate in our society and the meanings that are mobilized in this process. For this purpose, we used the marketing and commercialization mechanisms surrounding funereal objects in undertakers in the central region of Curitiba/Paraná and the ethnography of a wake ceremony. Death is understood as a ritual that condenses separation, passage and aggregation simultaneously. The study reveals how the meanings that emerge from these rites gradually changed along the history of the Western societies, going through important medicalization processes, (including hygiene) that are now mobilized and commercialized by the undertakers. These processes influenced directly the way people express their feelings when confronted with someone’s death and the inevitability of their own dying, as well as the way they organize and understand the funereal ceremonies. These changes established new meanings for the notions of public and private, redefining their borders and developing new semantic configurations about death.Keywords: Death. Funereal rites. Emotions. Medicalization.

Divine Patterns: Louis Agassiz and American Men of Letters. Some Preliminary Explorations

1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-381
Author(s):  
Ian F. A. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
History Of Biology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Natural Historian ◽  
Louis Agassiz ◽  
Asa Gray ◽  
The Way

To arrive at Pound's Canto XXIII from Poe's ‘ Sonnet to Science ’ is a problematic task for more and less obvious reasons. Part of the way in which we may make the approach is through the resonances of certain figures prominent in the history of ideas; in particular to Louis Agassiz, the Swiss-born geologist and natural historian who was a central personality in Cambridge circles from his arrival in America in 1846 until his death in 1873. Apart from Edward Lurie's excellent biography, Louis Agassiz, A Life in Science (Chicago, 1960), the twentieth century bears only scattered reference to him, whereas the latter half of the nineteenth century celebrated his work enthusiastically and prolifically. Part of the reason for his diminished presence after the turn of the century lies undoubtedly in his position outside the mainstream of contemporary biological thinking, particularly as a result of his quarrel with Asa Gray during the 1850s; Agassiz was the only scientist of influential standing to oppose himself to the doctrine of Evolution. Consequently, he occupies a far less prominent place in the history of biology than he did in his own era.

Rorschach Assessment of Complex Trauma in Youth

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-41
Author(s):  
David Ephraim
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Assessment ◽  
Complex Trauma ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Traumatic Events ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

Abstract. A history of complex trauma or exposure to multiple traumatic events of an interpersonal nature, such as abuse, neglect, and/or major attachment disruptions, is unfortunately common in youth referred for psychological assessment. The way these adolescents approach the Rorschach task and thematic contents they provide often reflect how such experiences have deeply affected their personality development. This article proposes a shift in perspective in the interpretation of protocols of adolescents who suffered complex trauma with reference to two aspects: (a) the diagnostic relevance of avoidant or emotionally constricted Rorschach protocols that may otherwise appear of little use, and (b) the importance of danger-related thematic contents reflecting the youth’s sense of threat, harm, and vulnerability. Regarding this last aspect, the article reintroduces the Preoccupation with Danger Index ( DI). Two cases are presented to illustrate the approach.

Sea Urchins and Circuses: The Modernist Natural Histories of Jean Painlevé and Alexander Calder

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-211
Author(s):  
Patricia E. Chu
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Sea Urchins ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Machine Age ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The One ◽  
Natural Historian

The Paris avant-garde milieu from which both Cirque Calder/Calder's Circus and Painlevé’s early films emerged was a cultural intersection of art and the twentieth-century life sciences. In turning to the style of current scientific journals, the Paris surrealists can be understood as engaging the (life) sciences not simply as a provider of normative categories of materiality to be dismissed, but as a companion in apprehending the “reality” of a world beneath the surface just as real as the one visible to the naked eye. I will focus in this essay on two modernist practices in new media in the context of the history of the life sciences: Jean Painlevé’s (1902–1989) science films and Alexander Calder's (1898–1976) work in three-dimensional moving art and performance—the Circus. In analyzing Painlevé’s work, I discuss it as exemplary of a moment when life sciences and avant-garde technical methods and philosophies created each other rather than being classified as separate categories of epistemological work. In moving from Painlevé’s films to Alexander Calder's Circus, Painlevé’s cinematography remains at the forefront; I use his film of one of Calder's performances of the Circus, a collaboration the men had taken two decades to complete. Painlevé’s depiction allows us to see the elements of Calder's work that mark it as akin to Painlevé’s own interest in a modern experimental organicism as central to the so-called machine-age. Calder's work can be understood as similarly developing an avant-garde practice along the line between the bestiary of the natural historian and the bestiary of the modern life scientist.

Life as a Raw Material: Illusions of Control

Somatechnics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oron Catts ◽  
Ionat Zurr
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Cognitive Engineering ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
Short History ◽  
Know How ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

The paper discusses and critiques the concept of the single engineering paradigm. This concepts allude to a future in which the control of matter and life, and life as matter, will be achieved by applying engineering principles; through nanotechnology, synthetic biology and, as some suggest, geo-engineering, cognitive engineering and neuro-engineering. We outline some issues in the short history of the field labelled as Synthetic Biology. Furthermore; we examine the way engineers, scientists, designers and artists are positioned and articulating the use of the tools of Synthetic Biology to expose some of the philosophical, ethical and political forces and considerations of today as well as some future scenarios. We suggest that one way to enable the possibilities of alternative frames of thought is to open up the know-how and the access to these technologies to other disciplines, including artistic.

FBI and Religion

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Orientation ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interdisciplinary Assessment ◽  
Civic Religion ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This volume is an interdisciplinary assessment of the relationship between religion and the FBI. We recount the history of the FBI’s engagement with multiple religious communities and with aspects of public or “civic” religion such as morality and respectability. The book presents new research to explain roughly the history of the FBI’s interaction with religion over approximately one century, from the pre-Hoover period to the post-9/11 era. Along the way, the book explores vexed issues that go beyond the particulars of the FBI’s history—the juxtaposition of “religion” and “cult,” the ways in which race can shape the public’s perceptions of religion (and vica versa), the challenges of mediating between a religious orientation and a secular one, and the role and limits of academic scholarship as a way of addressing the differing worldviews of the FBI and some of the religious communities it encounters.

The Beginnings of Islam in Afghanistan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arezou Azad
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Political System ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
History Of ◽  
Initial Conversion ◽  
The Way

Covering the period from 709 to 871, this chapter traces the initial conversion of Afghanistan from Zoroastrianism and Buddhism to Islam. Highlighting the differential developments in four regions of Afghanistan, it discusses the very earliest history of Afghan Islam both as a religion and as a political system in the form of a caliphate.  The chapter draws on under-utilized sources, such as fourth to eighth century Bactrian documents from Tukharistan and medieval Arabic and Persian histories of Balkh, Herat and Sistan. In so doing, it offers a paradigm shift in the way early Islam is understood by arguing that it did not arrive in Afghanistan as a finished product, but instead grew out of Afghanistan’s multi-religious context. Through fusions with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, early Abrahamic traditions, and local cult practices, the Islam that resulted was less an Arab Islam that was imported wholesale than a patchwork of various cultural practices.

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