The itinerary of Alfred Russel Wallace's Amazonian journey (1848–1852): A source for researchers and readers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Rafael Limeira-DaSilva
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Brazilian Amazon ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Botanical Species ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Accurate Picture ◽  
Natural Scientists ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

This research report offers the most complete itinerary of Alfred Russel Wallace's scientific explorations of the Brazilian Amazon between 1848 and 1852. As a source for historians of science and natural scientists, it may become a reference to track the zoological and botanical species collected alongside the described landscapes and people in Wallace's complex road map of explorations. Evidencing many relations and interests intertwined with the construction of Wallace's itinerary, this report makes room for the elaboration of a more accurate picture of his expedition. Tracking the development of Wallace's insights along his journey, this itinerary also allows us to ascertain which species, regions, and phenomena fostered the conceptual roots of his later theory of evolution by natural selection.

scholarly journals Turing Machines and Evolution. A Critique of Gregory Chaitin’s Metabiology

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-150
Author(s):  
Radosław Siedliński
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Turing Machines ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

Abstract The aim of the paper is twofold. First, it presents the fundamental ideas and results of the “metabiology” created by Gregory Chaitin. Second, it shows why metabiology ultimately fails as a candidate for being a proper mathematical model for the theory of evolution by natural selection. Because of genocentric reductionism and biological oversimplifications, metabiology should be perceived rather as an expression of the philosophical worldview of it’s author.

2. Evolution and natural selection

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Samir Okasha
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Philosophical Significance ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which he set out his theory of evolution. The book marked a turning point in our understanding of the natural world and revolutionized biology. ‘Evolution and natural selection’ outlines the theory of evolution by natural selection, explaining its unique status in biology and its philosophical significance. It considers how Darwin’s theory undermined the ‘argument from design’, a traditional philosophical argument for the existence of God; how the integration of Darwin’s theory with genetics, in the early 20th century, gave rise to neo-Darwinism; and why, despite evolutionary theory being a mainstay of modern biology, in society at large there is a marked reluctance to believe in evolution.

What the human annals tell us

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 888-888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwen J. Broude
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Reciprocal Altruism ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Cultural Data

Evidence reveals numerous cross-cultural universals regarding human mental processes and behavior. Similarly, cross-cultural data are consistent with predictions from theories of kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and sexual selection inspired by Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Thus, the “annals of human behaviour” do provide “example[s] fitting the sociobiological bill,” (Lifelines, p. 202) thereby, supporting sociobiological accounts of human behavior.

scholarly journals Value of species and the evolution of conservation ethics

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 181038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darragh Hare ◽  
Bernd Blossey ◽  
H. Kern Reeve
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Conservation Ethics ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Time Required

The theory of evolution by natural selection can help explain why people care about other species. Building upon recent insights that morality evolves to secure fitness advantages of cooperation, we propose that conservation ethics (moral beliefs, attitudes, intuitions and norms regarding other species) could be adaptations that support cooperation between humans and non-humans. We present eco-evolutionary cost–benefit models of conservation behaviours as interspecific cooperation (altruism towards members of other species). We find that an evolutionary rule identical in structure to Hamilton's rule (which explains altruistic behaviour towards related conspecifics) can explain altruistic behaviour towards members of other species. Natural selection will favour traits for selectively altering the success of members of other species (e.g. conserving them) in ways that maximize inclusive fitness return benefits. Conservation behaviours and the ethics that evolve to reinforce them will be sensitive to local ecological and socio-cultural conditions, so will assume different contours in different places. Difficulties accurately assessing costs and benefits provided by other species, time required to adapt to ecological and socio-cultural change and barriers to collective action could explain the apparent contradiction between the widespread existence of conservation ethics and patterns of biodiversity decline globally.

Darwin, Teleology and Taxonomy

Philosophy ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 48 (183) ◽  
pp. 35-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Woodfield
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Language User ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Descent Of Man

Darwinism is ‘much more than a theory’, said the German botanist Albert Wigand in 1875; ‘it is a frame of mind which dominates thought, a resuscitated “Naturphilosophie”, in which the terms “Polarity”, “Totality”, “Subject”, “Object” are replaced by terms such as “Struggle for Existence”, “Inheritance”, “Selection”, and so on.’ Subsequent events have indicated that Wigand had a point. But it is not clear to us yet what exactly the point is. Interest in Man's Place in Nature, and in his alleged biological uniqueness as a language-user and tool-maker, is as great now as it was in 1871 when Darwin's Descent of Man was first published. We now have access to well over a hundred years' worth of material sparked off by The Origin of Species, linking Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection to almost every field under the sun. Yet the precise status of his theory is still the subject of vigorous controversy in philosophy of science.

scholarly journals Darwin would have loved DNA: celebrating Darwin 200

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindell Bromham
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Genetics ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
To Come ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Biology Research

Analysis of DNA sequences now plays a key role in evolutionary biology research. If Darwin were to come back today, I think he would be absolutely delighted with molecular evolutionary genetics, for three reasons. First, it solved one of the greatest problems for his theory of evolution by natural selection. Second, it gives us a tool that can be used to investigate many of the questions he found the most fascinating. And third, DNA data confirm Darwin's grand view of evolution.

scholarly journals The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
The Self ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Organizational Account

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-proliferating 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 continuous 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 concept and its role in explaining biological phenomena—if we aim to obtain an organismic theory of evolution in the original spirit of Darwin’s struggle for existence. This kind of understanding must rely on an agential perspective on evolution, 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.

Henry Walter Bates—his life and contributions to biology

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES E. O'HARA
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Geographical Society ◽  
Alfred Russel Wallace ◽  
Popular Book ◽  
Spare Time ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Number Of Publications

Henry Walter Bates was born in Leicester, England, on 8 February 1825. Early in life he developed a keen interest in natural history in general, and in insects in particular. He met and befriended Alfred Russel Wallace, and in 1848 the two embarked on a collecting expedition to the Amazon Valley. They soon parted company and thereafter collected separately in different areas of Amazonia. Bates returned to England 11 years later, in 1859. He was quick to embrace Darwin's and Wallace's theory of evolution by natural selection, and was one of the first to back the theory with evidence from the natural world. A case in point was Bates's theory of mimicry, which now bears his name. In 1863, his popular book The Naturalist on the River Amazons was published. Bates took the post of Assistant Secretary at the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1864 and continued in that position until his death in 1892. During that period he produced in his spare time a prodigious number of publications in systematic entomology, mostly on Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Many of his works were accompanied by insightful discussions of zoogeography, thus distinguishing Bates as one of the more remarkable and progressive systematists of his time.

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