The Equally Wonderful Field: Ernst Mayr and Organismic Biology

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Lorraine Milam
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Ernst Mayr ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Mechanistic Approach ◽  
Theodosius Dobzhansky ◽  
Historical Identity ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
George Gaylord Simpson

Biologists in the 1960s witnessed a period of intense intra-disciplinary negotiations, especially the positioning of organismic biologists relative to molecular biologists. The perceived valorization of the physical sciences by "molecular" biologists became a catalyst creating a unified front of "organismic" biology that incorporated not just evolutionary biologists, but also students of animal behavior, ecology, systematics, botany——in short, almost any biological community that predominantly conducted their research in the field or museum and whose practitioners felt the pinch of the prestige and funding accruing to molecular biologists and biochemists. Ernst Mayr, Theodosius Dobzhansky, and George Gaylord Simpson took leading roles in defending alternatives to what they categorized as the mechanistic approach of chemistry and physics applied to living systems——the "equally wonderful field of organismic biology." Thus, it was through increasingly tense relations with molecular biology that organismic biologists cohered into a distinct community, with their own philosophical grounding, institutional security, and historical identity. Because this identity was based in large part on a fundamental rejection of the physical sciences as a desirable model within biology, organismic biologists succeeded in protecting the future of their field by emphasizing the deep divisions that ran through the biological sciences as a whole.

Unfinished Synthesis

1986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niles Eldredge
Keyword(s):  
Modern Synthesis ◽  
Ernst Mayr ◽  
Conventional Theory ◽  
Higher Taxa ◽  
Evolutionary Thought ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Theodosius Dobzhansky ◽  
George Gaylord Simpson

This study provides a stimulating critique of contemporary evolutionary thought, analyzing the Modern Synthesis first developed by Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, and George Gaylord Simpson. The author argues that although only genes and organisms are taken as historic "individuals" in conventional theory, species, higher taxa, and ecological entities such as populations and communities should also be construed as individuals--an approach that yields the ecological and genealogical hierarchies that interact to produce evolution. This clearly stated, controversial work will provoke much debate among evolutionary biologists, systematists, paleontologists, and ecologists, as well as a wide range of educated lay readers.

Genetics and the Races of Man. William C. Boyd. Boston (Little, Brown, & Co.), 1950. xvii + 453 pp. 6.00. (Reviewed by Ashley Montagu in the Saturday Review of Literature, 17 February 1.951; by Leslie C. Dunn in the Scientific American 183-6, December 1950; in Theodosius Dobzhansky, “Race and Humanity,” Science 113 (2932): 264-265, March 9, 1951; by J. N. Spuhler in the American Anthropologist 53-2, April-June 1951. Vol. 9, reviewed by Joseph B. Birdsell in American Journal of Physical Anthropology, No. 2, June 1951; by A. E. Mourant in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 1951). - Principles of Human Genetics. Curt Stern. San Francisco (W. H. Freeman), 1949. xi + 617 pp. $7.50. (Reviewed by Theodosius Dobzhansky in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology 8-4, December 1950). - Races. A study of the problems of race formation in man. C. S. Coon, Stanley M. Garn, and Joseph B. Birdsell. American Lecture Series No. 77, Springfield, 111. (C. C. Thomas), 1950. xiv + 153 pp., 15 plates and 11 figs. $3.00. (Reviewed by J. Lawrence Angel in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology 8-4, December 1950; by Marshall T. Newman in the Boletin Bibliografico de Antropologia Americana, XIII (1950), Part II, Mexico, 1951, pp. 188-192; by Leslie C. Dunn in the American Anthropologist 53-1, January-March 1951; in Theodosius Dobzhansky, “Race and Humanity,” Science 113 (2932): 264-265, March 9, 1951). - Genetics, Paleontology, and Evolution. A symposium edited by Glenn L. Jepson, Ernst Mayr, and George Gaylord Simpson. Princeton University Press, 1949. xvi + 479 pp. $6.00. (Reviewed by S. L. Washburn in American Journal of Physical Anthropology 8-2, June 1950; by W. W. Howells in the American Anthropologist 52-4, October-December 1950).

1951 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-168
Author(s):  
Erik K. Reed
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Human Genetics ◽  
Physical Anthropology ◽  
Ernst Mayr ◽  
American Anthropologist ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Theodosius Dobzhansky ◽  
Saturday Review ◽  
George Gaylord Simpson ◽  
Race Formation

scholarly journals Tipping points among social learners: Tools from varied disciplines

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Alexander Bentley ◽  
Michael J. O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Tipping Points ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
The Social

Abstract There is a long and rich tradition in the social sciences of using models of collective behavior in animals as jumping-off points for the study of human behavior, including collective human behavior. Here, we come at the problem in a slightly different fashion. We ask whether models of collective human behavior have anything to offer those who study animal behavior. Our brief example of tipping points, a model first developed in the physical sciences and later used in the social sciences, suggests that the analysis of human collective behavior does indeed have considerable to offer [Current Zoology 58 (2): 298–306, 2012].

scholarly journals On Crashing the Barrier of Meaning in Artificial Intelligence

AI Magazine ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Information Theory ◽  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Santa Fe ◽  
Dawn Song ◽  
Artificial Intelligence Systems

In 1986, the mathematician and philosopher Gian-Carlo Rota wrote, “I wonder whether or when artificial intelligence will ever crash the barrier of meaning” (Rota 1986). Here, the phrase “barrier of meaning” refers to a belief about humans versus machines: Humans are able to actually understand the situations they encounter, whereas even the most advanced of today’s artificial intelligence systems do not yet have a humanlike understanding of the concepts that we are trying to teach them. This lack of understanding may underlie current limitations on the generality and reliability of modern artificial intelligence systems. In October 2018, the Santa Fe Institute held a three-day workshop, organized by Barbara Grosz, Dawn Song, and myself, called Artificial Intelligence and the Barrier of Meaning. Thirty participants from a diverse set of disciplines — artificial intelligence, robotics, cognitive and developmental psychology, animal behavior, information theory, and philosophy, among others — met to discuss questions related to the notion of understanding in living systems and the prospect for such understanding in machines. In the hope that the results of the workshop will be useful to the broader community, this article summarizes the main themes of discussion and highlights some of the ideas developed at the workshop.

Misconduct and the Development of Ethics in the Biological Sciences

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Joel Reiser
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Scientific Misconduct ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Decisions ◽  
Selective Approach ◽  
Practice Of Medicine ◽  
Ethical Choices ◽  
The 1960S

A variety of cases of scientific misconduct have been documented since the 1980s among biological scientists. These cases have focused the attention of the public and scientific community on this behavior and made it the centerpiece of the concern about ethics in the biological sciences. In contrast, the ethics movement in clinical medicine, which arose in the 1960s, was not basically directed at the problems of wrong-doing. Instead it concentrated on the difficult ethical choices that had to be made In the practice of medicine.In this essay, I discuss the two movements. The attention given to misconduct In the biological sciences has become excessive and diverts its ethics movement from exploring and teaching about the difficult ethical decisions scientists must make in weighing obligations to self, science, and society. A more balanced and selective approach to developing an ethical framework in the biological sciences is needed.

Professionalising Natural Science Education and Multipronged Open Distance Learning

2012 ◽  
pp. 306-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. PanduRanga Narasimharao
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Master's Programs ◽  
Natural Science Education ◽  
And Training

Tobias et al. (1995) postulated in their book on “Rethinking Science as a Career” that Master’s programs could produce graduates who provide the same level of expertise and leadership as professionals do in other fields. They say that they would do so by having the ability to use the products of scholarship in their work and by being familiar with the practical aspects of emerging problem areas. If we consider natural science consisting of physical sciences, biological sciences, mathematics, geosciences, and computer science, degrees in computer science and geosciences served as credentials for practice, whereas physics, chemistry, and biological sciences served as classical graduate education. Robbins-Roth (2006) collected 22 career descriptions for science graduates ranging from public policy to investment banking, and from patent examining to broadcast science journalism. There are several sectors of the society where the principles and knowledge of these science disciplines are used. On the other hand, there are many of the graduates in these disciplines who either are working in areas completely unrelated to their education and training or are unemployable. The need for preparing the science graduates professionally is well recognized (Schuster, 2011; Vanderford, 2010; Narasimharao, Shashidhara Prasad and Nair, 2011; Chuck, 2011).

Causing Harm: Epidemiological and Physiological Concepts of Causation

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth F. Schaffner
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Extensive Study ◽  
Sonic Boom ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

In this chapter I shall examine the relations between what appear to be two somewhat different concepts of causation that are widely employed in the biomedical sciences. The first type is what I term epidemiological causation. It is characteristically statistical and uses expressions like "increased risk" and "risk factor." The second concept is more like the form of causation we find in both the physical sciences and everyday life, as in expressions such as "the increase in temperature caused the mercury in the thermometer to expand" or "the sonic boom caused my window to break." In the physical and the biological sciences, such claims are typically further analyzed and explained in terms of underlying mechanisms. For example, accounts in the medical literature of cardiovascular diseases associated with the ischemic myocardium typically distinguish between the risk factors and the mechanisms for these disorders (Willerson 1982). Interestingly, both concepts of causation have found their way into the legal arena, the first or epidemiological concept only relatively recently in both case law and federal agency regulatory restrictions. The second, perhaps more typical, notion of causation has turned out to be not so simple on deeper analysis and led Hart and Honoré, among others, to subject the notion to extensive study in their classic book Causation in the Law. In another paper (Schaffner 1987), I examined some of these issues, in particular the epidemiological concept of causation as it might apply to recent DES cases such as Sinddl and Collins. Reflections on the Sindell case and on one of its legal precedents, the Summers v. Tice case, led Judith Jarvis Thomson to introduce a distinction between two types of evidence that might be adduced to support a claim that an agent caused harm to a person. The two types of evidence parallel the distinction between these two concepts of causation, and 1 shall introduce them by means of a particularly striking example originally credited to David Kaye (Kaye 1982).

Professionalising Natural Science Education and Multipronged Open Distance Learning

2015 ◽  
pp. 138-152
Author(s):  
B. PanduRanga Narasimharao
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Master's Programs ◽  
Natural Science Education ◽  
And Training

Tobias et al. (1995) postulated in their book on “Rethinking Science as a Career” that Master's programs could produce graduates who provide the same level of expertise and leadership as professionals do in other fields. They say that they would do so by having the ability to use the products of scholarship in their work and by being familiar with the practical aspects of emerging problem areas. If we consider natural science consisting of physical sciences, biological sciences, mathematics, geosciences, and computer science, degrees in computer science and geosciences served as credentials for practice, whereas physics, chemistry, and biological sciences served as classical graduate education. Robbins-Roth (2006) collected 22 career descriptions for science graduates ranging from public policy to investment banking, and from patent examining to broadcast science journalism. There are several sectors of the society where the principles and knowledge of these science disciplines are used. On the other hand, there are many of the graduates in these disciplines who either are working in areas completely unrelated to their education and training or are unemployable. The need for preparing the science graduates professionally is well recognized (Schuster, 2011; Vanderford, 2010; Narasimharao, Shashidhara Prasad and Nair, 2011; Chuck, 2011).

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