scholarly journals Galactic Darwinism: Epistemological significance of astrobiology for the theory of evolution

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Cirkovic ◽  
Biljana Stojkovic
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Philosophy Of Biology ◽  
Evolution Problem ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Research Programs ◽  
Biological Hierarchy

In this article we suggest that the new multidisciplinary field of astrobiology, as a set of the most general research programs dealing with life in its cosmic context is not only useful, but indeed necessary for the full epistemological and methodological justification of the theory of biological evolution. For this purpose, we use three examples of major problems in the philosophy of biology, namely the question of the universality of evolutionary mechanisms, the problem of the origin of the biological hierarchy and the evolvability of evolution problem, which are difficult to address without significant influence of Astrobiology results. We will also consider some of the consequences this has concerning the very philosophy of biology, traditionally understood.

Sinn, Reflexion und System / Meaning, Reflection, and System

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Maciejewski
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Communications Theory ◽  
Universal Applicability

AbstractTaking LUHMANN’s theory of evolution as an instance, it can be demonstrated that a concept of meaning compatible with the categories of systems theory is bound to neglect important dimensions of socio-cultural development. The attempt to vindicate this very limitation by drawing a line between social systems and organisms is proved problematical in the context of the ,Meaning vs. Life’ debate. At the same time, employment of the term ’evolutionary mechanisms’ (viz., variation, selection, and stabilization) brings into evidence that the theory of social evolution as proposed by LUHMANN is fashioned, in the last analysis, after the model of biological evolution. Carried to its extreme, this theory must lead to a notion of society as susceptible to being brought under control in the same way as nature is. When following HEGEL, in contrast, it should be possible to conceive of socio-cultural history in its uniqueness as the outcome of a social dialectic, which in turn could be adequately deployed by introducing a category of ’media of socialization’ (viz., work, language, and domination). Prerequisite to this, however, would be the adoption of an unabbreviated concept of meaning (as derived from communications theory), which in itself would no longer be compatible with systems theory. Thus, the latter’s claim to universal applicability should be evinced as untenable.

scholarly journals Information about Human Evolution: An Analysis of News Published in Communication Media in Spanish between 2015 and 2017

Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Jon Ander Garibi ◽  
Alvaro Antón ◽  
José Domingo Villarroel
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Knowledge Dissemination ◽  
Communication Media ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Scientific Journalism

The present study examines a sample of 220 pieces of news related to human evolution, written in Spanish and published over a period of two years, both in digital and print media. The aim of this study is to assess the rigor and coherence of the information in the news in our sample with scientific knowledge on the theory of evolution. To this end, errors and the incorrect use of concepts related to biological evolution are identified, classified according to criteria resulting from the review of previous studies, and finally, the frequency of errors identified in news published in print media is compared with that identified in digital media. The results presented allow us to highlight the significantly high frequency of errors in the news analyzed and the most frequent error categories. Results are discussed within the frame of the important role that scientific journalism plays in the processes of knowledge dissemination, in this case, related to human evolution.

Contrasting evolutionary flexibility in sister groups: disparity and diversity in Mesozoic atelostomate echinoids

Paleobiology ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunther J. Eble
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Evolution ◽  
Hierarchical Level ◽  
Developmental Constraint ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Lower Paleozoic ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Biological Hierarchy ◽  
Substantial Change ◽  
Test Architecture ◽  
Ordinal Level

Temporal asymmetries in clade histories have often been studied in lower Paleozoic radiations. Post-Paleozoic patterns, however, are less well understood. In this paper, disparity and diversity changes in Mesozoic heart urchins were analyzed at the ordinal level, with contrasts among the sister groups Holasteroida and Spatangoida, their paraphyletic stem group Disasteroida the more inclusive clade, the superorder Atelostomata. A 38-dimensional landmark-based morphospace representing test architecture was used to describe morphological evolution in terms of total variance and total range. Discordances between disparity and diversity were evident and were expressed both as deceleration in morphological diversification in all groups and as disproportionately higher disparity early in the histories of the Atelostomata, Holasteroida Spatangoida. The finding that the early atelostomate disparity peak coincides with the origin of the orders Holasteroida and Spatangoida lends support to the perception of orders as semi-independent entities in the biological hierarchy and as meaningful proxies for morphological distinctness.A comparison of holasteroid and spatangoid responses to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction revealed morphological selectivity. Paleocene spatangoid survivors showed no change in disparity relative to the Campanian-Maastrichtian sample, suggesting nonselectivity. Holasteroids suffered a pronounced loss in disparity (despite a rather high Late Cretaceous level of disparity), indicating morphological selectivity of extinction.Partitioning of disparity into plastral and nonplastral components, reflecting different degrees of developmental entrenchment and functionality, suggests that the origin of holasteroids and spatangoids is more consistent with an exploration of the developmental flexibility of nonplastral constructions than with uniform ecospace occupation. Within groups, several patterns were also most consistent with intrinsic controls. For plastral landmarks, there is an apparent increase in developmental modularity and decrease in developmental constraint from disasteroids to holasteroids and spatangoids. For nonplastral landmarks, no substantial change in disparity was observed from disasteroids to holasteroids and spatangoids, suggesting the maintenance of a developmental constraint despite the passage of time and ecological differentiation. More generally, this study suggests that certain topologies of disparity and evolutionary mechanisms potentially characteristic of the lower Paleozoic radiations of higher taxa (e.g., developmental flexibility) need not be confined to any given time period or hierarchical level.

scholarly journals Teaching biological evolution - internal and external evaluation of learning outcomes

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-184
Author(s):  
Clas Olander
Keyword(s):  
Biological Evolution ◽  
National Sample ◽  
External Evaluation ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Evaluation Of Learning ◽  
Experimental Group

This paper reports from a study where teachers and researchers collaborate on designing and validatingtopic-oriented teaching-learning sequences. In an iterative process, data about learning andteaching biological evolution are generated through continuous cycles of design, teaching, evaluation,and redesign. The study involved 180 Swedish students aged 11 – 16, and the overall learning aim was that the students should be able to use the theory of evolution as a tool when explaining the development of life on earth. The aim of this paper is to validate the students’ learning outcome, estimated as appropriation of scientific ways of reasoning in written answers. The students’ answers of questions are analysed before and after interventions (internal evaluation), and compared with the answers from a national sample (external evaluation). The students in the experimental group did develop their reasoning, and they attained the aim, to a greater extent than a national sample.

Muslim Perceptions of Biological Evolution: A Critical Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Research

2019 ◽  
pp. 147-170
Author(s):  
Jessica Carlisle ◽  
Salman Hameed ◽  
Fern Elsdon-Baker
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Or Education ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Science In Society

The topic of Muslims’ attitudes towards the theory of biological evolution has received increasing attention at the margins of the fields of public understanding of society, science communication or education and science in society. The methodology and methods employed in this work are primarily informed by research on attitudes towards evolution in the ‘West’, particularly in the US where the issue is highly politicized. Small, interview based qualitative and larger, survey based quantitative studies have explored degrees of acceptance or rejection of non-human and human evolution in a number of Muslim majority and Muslim minority contexts. The underlying rationale for these studies is often underpinned by a ‘deficit model’ in which Islam, or being Muslim, is usually posited as a particular obstacle to public understanding and acceptance of theory of evolution. This chapter summarizes these studies, analyzes the particularities of how deficit model approaches might be implicitly informing their findings, and reflects on the lack of reflexivity in much public understanding of science research on Muslim contexts.

scholarly journals Tussen sciëntisme en fideïsme: Acceptatie van de evolutietheorie als theologische uitdaging

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gijsbert Van den Brink
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
Acceptance Of Evolution ◽  
Theological Challenge ◽  
Life On Earth

Between scientism and fideism: Acceptance of evolution as a theological challenge. In this contribution to the special issue of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies that is dedicated to Prof. Buitendag, I will explore what Prof. Buitendag’s notion of a ‘revised natural theology’ might mean for the theological reception of the scientific theory of biological evolution. I argue that two extremes must be avoided here. One is the fideistic ignoring of (or refusal to take into account) the data that have been placed on the table regarding the evolutionary development of life on earth, as if these do not concern theology. The other extreme that theology must steer clear of is a scientistic over-interpretation of our knowledge of the evolutionary past, whereby the theory of evolution is magnified to a comprehensive philosophy of life (‘evolutionism’) that is incompatible with Christian faith.

scholarly journals Pragmatics and Language Evolution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke Woensdregt ◽  
Kenny Smith
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms

Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics that deals with language use in context. It looks at the meaning linguistic utterances can have beyond their literal meaning (implicature), and also at presupposition and turn taking in conversation. Thus, pragmatics lies on the interface between language and social cognition. From the point of view of both speaker and listener, doing pragmatics requires reasoning about the minds of others. For instance, a speaker has to think about what knowledge they share with the listener to choose what information to explicitly encode in their utterance and what to leave implicit. A listener has to make inferences about what the speaker meant based on the context, their knowledge about the speaker, and their knowledge of general conventions in language use. This ability to reason about the minds of others (usually referred to as “mindreading” or “theory of mind”) is a cognitive capacity that is uniquely developed in humans compared to other animals. What we know about how pragmatics (and the underlying ability to make inferences about the minds of others) has evolved. Biological evolution and cultural evolution are the two main processes that can lead to the development of a complex behavior over generations, and we can explore to what extent they account for what we know about pragmatics. In biological evolution, changes happen as a result of natural selection on genetically transmitted traits. In cultural evolution on the other hand, selection happens on skills that are transmitted through social learning. Many hypotheses have been put forward about the role that natural selection may have played in the evolution of social and communicative skills in humans (for example, as a result of changes in food sources, foraging strategy, or group size). The role of social learning and cumulative culture, however, has been often overlooked. This omission is particularly striking in the case of pragmatics, as language itself is a prime example of a culturally transmitted skill, and there is solid evidence that the pragmatic capacities that are so central to language use may themselves be partially shaped by social learning. In light of empirical findings from comparative, developmental, and experimental research, we can consider the potential contributions of both biological and cultural evolutionary mechanisms to the evolution of pragmatics. The dynamics of types of evolutionary processes can also be explored using experiments and computational models.

scholarly journals Neutral evolution test of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and its implications in the binding to ACE2

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina I. López-Cortés ◽  
Miryam Palacios-Pérez ◽  
Gabriel S. Zamudio ◽  
Hannya F. Veledíaz ◽  
Enrique Ortega ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Neutral Theory ◽  
Purifying Selection ◽  
Spike Protein ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Neutral Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Selective Pressures

AbstractAs the SARS-CoV-2 has spread and the pandemic has dragged on, the virus continued to evolve rapidly resulting in the emergence of new highly transmissible variants that can be of public health concern. The evolutionary mechanisms that drove this rapid diversity are not well understood but neutral evolution should open the first insight. The neutral theory of evolution states that most mutations in the nucleic acid sequences are random and they can be fixed or disappear by purifying selection. Herein, we performed a neutrality test to better understand the selective pressures exerted over SARS-CoV-2 spike protein from homologue proteins of Betacoronavirus, as well as to the spikes from human clinical isolates of the virus. Specifically, Tyr and Asn have higher occurrence rates on the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) and in the overall sequence of spike proteins of Betacoronavirus, whereas His and Arg have lower occurrence rates. The in vivo evolutionary phenomenon of SARS-CoV-2 shows that Glu, Lys, Phe, and Val have the highest probability of occurrence in the emergent viral particles. Amino acids that have higher occurrence than the expected by the neutral control, are favorable and are fixed in the sequence while the ones that have lower occurrence than expected, influence the stability and/or functionality of the protein. Our results show that most unique mutations either for SARS-CoV-2 or its variants of health concern are under selective pressures, which could be related either to the evasion of the immune system, increasing the virus’ fitness or altering protein – protein interactions with host proteins. We explored the consequences of those selected mutations in the structure and protein – protein interaction with the receptor. Altogether all these forces have shaped the spike protein and the continually evolving variants.

scholarly journals The information about human evolution: An analysis of news published in Spanish communication media between 2015 and 2017

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Ander Garibi ◽  
Alvaro Antón ◽  
José Domingo Villarroel
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Knowledge Dissemination ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Scientific Journalism

The present study examines a sample of 220 pieces of news related to human evolution, written in Spanish and published over a period of two years, both in digital and print media. The aim of this study is to assess the rigour and coherence of the information in the news in our sample with the scientific knowledge on the Theory of Evolution. To this end, errors and the incorrect use of concepts related to Biological Evolution are identified; classified according to criteria resulting from the review of previous studies and finally, the frequency of errors identified in news published in print media is compared with that identified in digital media. The results presented allow us to highlight the significantly high frequency of errors in the news analysed and the most frequent error categories. Results are discussed within the frame of the important role of dissemination of information played by scientific journalism in the processes of knowledge dissemination, in this case, related to human evolution

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