scholarly journals IS NATURAL SELECTION A CHIMERA? REFLECTIONS ON THE ‘SURVIVAL’ OF A PRINCIPLE

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gláucia Oliveira da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Scientific Field ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
A Value ◽  
Great Divide

Abstract My objective is to discuss the persistence of the notion of natural selection in the biological sciences, exploring the fact that: (1) this notion, just like the term culture in anthropology, is historically an inaugural concept in its particular scientific field, and, insofar as both possess a value of heuristic delimitation, both thus came to be considered as explanatory concepts, although today they may be more widely accepted as descriptive in kind; (2) this persistence seems to be equally linked to the fact that the term combines randomness and teleology, but without foregrounding the inherent contradiction; (3) the anthropomorphic metaphors generally used in the description of biological processes, by attributing intentionality to beings lacking in self-determination, presume the existence of a nature defined by processes oriented towards precise ends, endorsing the finalism that, I believe, underlies the idea of natural selection; (4) and, finally, I think that ‘culture’ and ‘natural selection’ correspond to disciplinary labels - for social anthropology and biology respectively - that arose in Victorian Britain, as defined by the Great Divide, but they no longer have explanatory power.

Formation of a Personal-Professional Position as the Basis of Technology Design Career Guidance Practices

2021 ◽  
pp. 64-73
Author(s):  
Valery Ilyich Tarlavsky ◽  
◽  
Marina Viktorovna Shakurova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Career Guidance ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Vocational Guidance ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Family Identity ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Family ◽  
Professional Self ◽  
Research Analysis

The article considers the need for a broad view on the technologization of career guidance practices, the importance of which is increasing due to the spread of early professionalization in modern society. The purpose of the article is to identify and substantiate the semantic foundations for the technologization of vocational guidance practices, determined taking into account the process of forming a personal-professional position in the conditions of early professionalization. Research methodology: systemic personality-developing, subjective and technological approaches; methods of theoretical research (analysis, synthesis, generalization, analogy, interpretation, concretization). Attention is drawn to the essential features of personal-professional positioning, the focus is on the attitude to work, profession, personal and professional self-determination. Semantic supports for the design of vocational guidance technologies are identified and justified: the differentiating basis of the stage of life activity; immersion in accessible roles in the field of professional and labor activity and the formation of a value attitude to them; attention to work, the pattern of work of any profession, the formed attitude to work as a value; professional and labor traditions of the family, related features of family identity and family socio-professional trajectory; definition and implementation of personal and professional prospects; preservation and strengthening of personal-professional position.

The Interface Between Physical Anthropology and Medical Genetics

1986 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 10-12
Author(s):  
Charles Hoff
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Model ◽  
Physical Anthropology ◽  
Medical Genetics ◽  
Scientific Rigor ◽  
The 1950S

By the 1950s, revolutionary advances in the basic biological sciences began to have a significant impact on the theory, methods, scientific rigor and scope of physical anthropology. The first of these was the development of Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory which integrated Medelian genetics, Pearsonian biometrics, evolution by mutation, drift and natural selection, and incorporated these and other genetic concepts into a unified quantitative evolutionary model.

Money and the C-CAPM

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Balvers ◽  
Dayong Huang
Keyword(s):  
Asset Pricing ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Capital Asset Pricing ◽  
Money Growth ◽  
Liquidity Shocks ◽  
A Value ◽  
Asset Pricing Models ◽  
Monetary Economy ◽  
Growth Firms ◽  
Intertemporal Asset Pricing

AbstractWe consider asset pricing in a monetary economy where liquid assets are held to lower transaction costs. The ensuing model extends the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and the consumption CAPM by deriving real money growth as an additional factor determining returns. Empirically, the two model versions compare favorably to other theoretical asset pricing models along several dimensions, supporting the traditional intertemporal asset pricing perspective. A value premium arises because value firms are sensitive to liquidity shocks but growth firms are not. Although no alternative factor drives out the money growth factor, the conditioning CAY factors of Lettau and Ludvigson (2001b) add explanatory power.

scholarly journals Is Human Society an Organism Made of Many Animals?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narcis Marincat
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Organism ◽  
Biological Organisms ◽  
Natural Cycles ◽  
Biological Reasoning

Social organism theories of the past have defined human societies as “biological organisms”, similar to animals or plants. This present work draws from the recent technological breakthroughs in both biology and astronomy to define the worldwide human society as a “multizoa organism”, i.e. an organism made of many animals. The paper then puts forth the idea that as a multizoa organism, human society is subject to some of the same biological processes that apply to other organisms, such as the natural cycles of growth, feeding and reproduction, the principles of evolution through natural selection, and the dangers of evolutionary pressures. Finally, it argues that war can be understood as a multizoa disease that decreases the chances of a society to survive in its environment and reproduce, thus providing a purely biological reasoning against the use of warfare.

scholarly journals Whāia Te Mauriora - In Pursuit of Healing: Theorising connections between soul healing, tribal self-determination and Māori suicide prevention in Aotearoa / New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Keri Lawson-Te Aho
Keyword(s):  
Major Trauma ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Trauma Narratives ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Physical Elements ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Spiritual Suffering ◽  
Physical Manifestation

<p>Māori suicide is theorised as an outcome of the wounding of the indigenous spirit as a result of complex trauma birthed during colonisation. The spirit is theorised as the place where trauma and suffering take root in whakapapa (kinship). Whakapapa is theorised as the mechanism by which spiritual affliction is transferred inter-generationally manifesting in physical outcomes within and between generations. Māori suicide is interpreted as the physical manifestation of spiritual wounds and spiritual wounding requires responses that ameliorate and heal spiritual suffering at the source. Therapies for soul healing are framed in context of indigenous self determination. This creates space to privilege healing traditions housed within cultural worldviews, practices and knowledge(s). This assumes an ability to reclaim traditional healing knowledge that works at a spiritual level. Whakapapa is theorised as the pathway by which profound healing of the wounded spirit can be achieved. In this research, connection to whakapapa and a full consciousness of the divine (mauri) inside all indigenous peoples that connects us with each other provides a source of healing of the spirit through balancing the spiritual and physical elements of human existence. In order to test the relationship between historical trauma and the outcomes of spiritual suffering 182 years of history were researched in one discrete tribal group. Using whānau narratives three major trauma acts were identified. The whānau identified historical trauma as having contemporary outcomes and consequences for whakapapa/kinship relationships. They found the analysis of historical trauma to be empowering, bringing forth revelation knowledge and explaining inter-generational suffering. The explanatory power of historical trauma/soul and spiritual wounding made sense to them experientially, intuitively and intellectually.  This PhD recommends healing methods (and pathways) for indigenous professionals and para-professionals working with extensive trauma in their communities. Trauma narratives are reframed as imperatives and opportunities for spiritual/soul healing.</p>

scholarly journals Will Dolphins Save the World? Russian Conversations about the Sacralization of the Beautiful

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gennady Bakumenko ◽  
Kalus Irina Vladimirovna ◽  
Nedbaeva Svetlana Viktorovna ◽  
Dudina Margarita Nikolaevna ◽  
Pokhilko Alexander Dmitrievich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Value System ◽  
Elementary Unit ◽  
A Value ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Theoretical Reflection

In the monograph, through the method of ethical questioning, a special place of open scientific thinking in the development of national culture is revealed. On the one hand, culture is conceived as a determinant of personal self-determination, which forms a person as an elementary unit and measure of a value system, on the other hand, it is an object of theoretical reflection, a complex systematic phenomenon causing social changes and the course of history. The book is written for students of social and humanitarian disciplines, scientists, philosophers and educators.В монографии посредством этического вопрошания раскрывается особое место открытого научного мышления в становлении отечественной культуры. С одной стороны, культура мыслится в качестве детерминанты личностного самоопределения, формирующей личность как элементарную единицу и мерило ценностной системы, с другой — является объектом теоретической рефлексии, сложным системным феноменом, обуславливающим социальные изменения и ход истории. Книга адресована студентам социальных и гуманитарных дисциплин, ученым, философам и педагогам.

scholarly journals The natural selection of metabolism and mass selects allometric transitions from prokaryotes to mammals

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Witting
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
The Body ◽  
Net Energy ◽  
A Value ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
Self Replication ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Evolution Proceeds

AbstractInter-specific body mass allometries can evolve from the natural selection of mass, with ±1/4 and ±3/4 exponents following from the geometry of intra-specific interactions when density dependent foraging occurs in two spatial dimensions (2D, Witting, 1995). The corresponding values for three dimensional interactions (3D) are ±1/6 and ±5/6.But the allometric exponents in mobile organisms are more diverse than the prediction. The exponent for mass specific metabolism tends to cluster around −1/4 and −1/6 in terrestrial and pelagic vertebrates, but it is strongly positive in prokaryotes with an apparent value around 5/6 (DeLong et al., 2010). And a value around zero has been reported in protozoa, and on the macro evolutionary scale from prokaryotes over larger unicells to multicellular vertebrates (Makarieva et al., 2005, 2008).I show that mass specific metabolism can be selected as the pace of the resource handling that generates net energy for self-replication and the selection of mass, and that this selection of metabolism and mass is sufficient to explain metabolic exponents that decline from 5/6 over zero to −1/6 in 3D, and from 3/4 over zero to −1/4 in 2D. The decline follows from a decline in the importance of mass specific metabolism for the selection of mass, and it suggestsi) that the body mass variation in prokaryotes is selected from primary variation in mass specific metabolism,ii) that the variation in multicellular animals are selected from primary variation in the handling and/or densities of the underlying resources,iii) that protozoa are selected as an intermediate lifeform between prokaryotes and multicellular animals, andiv) that macro evolution proceeds along an upper bound on mass specific metabolism.

The Two Degrees Celsius Limit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Acceptable Level ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Definitive Answer ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

International climate negotiations seek to limit warming to an average of two degrees Celsius (2°C). This objective is justified by the claim that scientists have identified two degrees of warming as the point at which climate change becomes dangerous. Climate scientists themselves maintain that while science can provide projections of possible impacts at different levels of warming, determining what constitutes an acceptable level of risk is not a matter to be decided by science alone, but is a value choice to be deliberated upon by societies as a whole. Hence, while climate science can inform debates about how much warming is too much, it cannot provide a definitive answer to that question. In order to fully understand how climate change came to be defined as a phenomenon with a single global dangerous limit of 2°C, it is necessary to incorporate insights from the social sciences. Political economy, culture, economics, sociology, geography, and social psychology have all played a role in defining what constitutes an acceptable level of climate risk. These perspectives can be applied through the framework of institutional analysis to examine reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other international organizations. This interdisciplinary approach offers the potential to provide a comprehensive history of how climate science has been interpreted in policy making. An interdisciplinary analysis is also essential in order to move beyond historical description to provide a narrative of considerable explanatory power. Such insights offer a valuable framework for considering current debates about whether or not it will be possible to limit warming to 2°C.

The Biology of Caves and Other Subterranean Habitats

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Culver ◽  
Tanja Pipan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Clear Explanation ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
The Many ◽  
Conservation And Management

Caves and other subterranean habitats with their often strange (even bizarre) inhabitants have long been objects of fascination, curiosity, and debate. The question of how such organisms have evolved, and the relative roles of natural selection and genetic drift, has engaged subterranean biologists for decades. Indeed, these studies continue to inform the general theory of adaptation and evolution. Subterranean ecosystems generally exhibit little or no primary productivity and, as extreme ecosystems, provide general insights into ecosystem function. The Biology of Caves and other Subterranean Habitats offers a concise but comprehensive introduction to cave ecology and evolution. Whilst there is an emphasis on biological processes occurring in these unique environments, conservation and management aspects are also considered. The monograph includes a global range of examples from more than 25 countries, and case studies from both caves and non-cave subterranean habitats; it also provides a clear explanation of specialized terms used by speleologists. This accessible text will appeal to researchers new to the field and to the many professional ecologists and conservation practitioners requiring a concise but authoritative overview. Its engaging style will also make it suitable for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in cave and subterranean biology. Its more than 650 references, 150 of which are new since the first edition, provide many entry points to the research literature.

Conceptual Rethinking Self-Determination Theory: The Project of Constructivist SDT

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Nikolaev
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Self Determination Theory ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Humanistic Psychology ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Healthy Development ◽  
Cognitive Mediation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Constructivist Perspective ◽  
Regulatory Styles

Self-determination theory (SDT) has developed gradually over the last 45 years to become a major theory of human motivation and personality. Philosophical roots of SDT are grounded in organismic theory, SDT assumes that humans are proactive by nature, oriented toward healthy development and are vulnerable to passivity, psychological fragmentation, and interpersonal disharmony, especially when the social surround is not supportive of their inherent growth tendencies. Such a dynamic gives rise to an organismic-dialectic meta-theory. SDT uses the achievements of many other approaches. In the field of psychology of motivation it represents a very successful development of ideas about the cognitive mediation of motivational tendencies developed by J. Rotter, J.A. Atkinson, H. Heckhausen, M.E.P. Seligman, B. Weiner, etc. In the field of personality psychology, SDT is a new, much more empirically grounded stage in the development of the ideas of humanistic psychology. This paper offers a way to rethink SDT from a constructivist perspective. It seems that this approach will allow us to unify the ways of motivation formation using different styles of activity regulation, will make it possible to differentiate various regulatory styles within the style that is called external in traditional SDT and also will provide an opportunity to re-examine the problem of distinguishing between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. It will eventually expand the explanatory power of the SDT.

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