Homo Sapiens Adaptation and the Law of Natural Selection

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Karen Kh. Momdzhyan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
The Law

Ritualization in international relations

1966 ◽  
Vol 251 (772) ◽  
pp. 451-455
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Species Relationships ◽  
Scientific Authority ◽  
Tnt Equivalent ◽  
The Law ◽  
Survival Of The Fittest

Homo sapiens now has the power to veto the evolution of his own species. In the mathematics of ‘overkill’ it is estimated (Pauling 1963) that the nuclear stockpile amounts to more than 320 000 megatons, i.e. a ration of more than 100 tons of TNT-equivalent for every man, woman and child on earth or 14 tons per acre of the entire land-surface. Since Homo sapiens is exceptional among the creatures in so far as he deliberately destroys his own species in internecine war, and since he has now the capacity for annihilation it becomes necessary to ritualize his acquired habits of self-destruction. That means contriving intra-species relationships as sensibly as do the animals and observing the Law of the Jungle, by which no predator ever exterminates the species on which it preys nor vents its aggressive instincts to the hazard of its own kind. ‘War is Nature’s pruning hook’, said Sir Arthur Keith (1927). That was a strange interpretation of ‘the survival of the fittest’, but it was the kind of statement which could be invoked as scientific ‘authority’ for accepting mutual destruction as an innate characteristic and for regarding war as part of the mechanism of natural selection rather than as a temporary deviation.

Darwinian Evolutionary Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ruse
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Descent Of Man

Charles Robert Darwin, the English naturalist, published On the Origin of Species in 1859 and the follow-up work The Descent of Man in 1871. In these works, he argued for his theory of evolution through natural selection, applying it to all organisms, living and dead, including our own species, Homo sapiens. Although controversial from the start, Darwin’s thinking was deeply embedded in the culture of his day, that of a middle-class Englishman. Evolution as such was an immediate success in scientific circles, but although the mechanism of selection had supporters in the scientific community (especially among those working with fast-breeding organisms), its real success was in the popular domain. Natural selection, and particularly the side mechanism of sexual selection, were known to all and popular themes in fiction and elsewhere.

scholarly journals Regulating the Tyrell Corporation: the Emergence of Novel Beings

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-434
Author(s):  
David R Lawrence ◽  
Sarah Morley
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Epochal Change ◽  
The Law

AbstractEmerging biotechnologies and advances in computer science promise the arrival of novel beings possessed of some degree of moral status, even potentially sentient or sapient life. Such a manifestation will constitute an epochal change, and perhaps threaten Homo sapiens’ status as the only being generally considered worthy of personhood and its contingent protections; as well as being the root of any number of social and legal issues. The law as it stands is not likely to be capable of managing or adapting to this challenge. This paper highlights the likely societal ramifications of novel beings and the gaps in the legislation which is likely to be relied upon to respond to these. In so doing, the authors make a case for the development of new regulatory structures to manage the moral issues surrounding this new technological upheaval.

Justifying “Wholesale Slaughter”

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-258
Author(s):  
Donald VanDeVeer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Late Stage ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Recent Trial ◽  
The Law

In a recent trial in the United States a physician was convicted of manslaughter during the performance of a hysterotomy on a woman pregnant from twenty to twenty eight weeks. Some members of the jury, in their deliberations, were much impressed by seeing a photograph of a fetus of about the same age. The experience apparently provided some jurors with reason to conclude that the fetus which did die during or immediately after the hysterotomy was a human being or a person or, at least, was so like a child that the killing of it was prohibited by the law of homicide. If being a human being is not the same as being a pre-natal progeny of homo sapiens, it is difficult to understand how one could “tell by looking” whether the fetus is a human being. But the sight of a fetus of twenty weeks or longer does, I think, tempt us to think that from a moral standpoint we ought to extend the same treatment to such fetuses, or virtually the same, as we extend to newborn babies and young children. The visual similarities between middle or late stage fetuses and newborn babies is striking.

A Brief History of Life and Brain Evolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Frederick L. Coolidge
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Differences ◽  
Behavioral Features ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Brain Shape ◽  
Evolutionary Fitness

This chapter reviews some of the fundamentals of evolution, particularly adaptations and exaptations. Adaptations are physical or behavioral features that through natural selection aided survival and reproduction. Exaptations are physical or behavioral features that have been co-opted from their initial adaptive functions and subsequently enhanced fitness. The reuse, recycling, or redeployment of brain neurons for purposes other than their original adaption may be considered a central organizing principle of the brain. The chapter reviews the beginnings of life and presents a timeline of life through the evolution of hominins. The term hominin refers to all current and extinct relatives and ancestors of Homo sapiens, including the australopithecines and habilines, within about the last 6 million years. The chapter introduces the hypothesis that Homo sapiens survived and flourished, instead of Neandertals, Denisovans, and other hominins, because of brain shape differences, which created cognitive differences that enhanced the evolutionary fitness of Homo sapiens.

The Point of Politics

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Betzig
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Reproductive Competition ◽  
Western History ◽  
Dominance Hierarchies ◽  
Men And Women

AbstractWhy do men and women compete? And what makes them compete more or less? An answer to the first question follows directly from Darwin. If Homo sapiens, like other species, is a product of natural selection, then we should have evolved to compete in order to reproduce. An answer to the second question follows from more recent versions of Darwinism. People, like other organisms, are likely to compete socially - to form dominance hierarchies - to the extent that it is costly for subordinates to flee ecologically. This paper first reviews evidence that winners at political competition have consistently won at reproductive competition. Next, it documents the slow shift toward declining political competition - toward democracy, and toward declining reproductive competition - toward monogamy, in the course of Western history. Last, it offers a model of what might account for that change.

The rise and fall of Homo sapiens sapiens

1989 ◽  
Vol 325 (1228) ◽  
pp. 479-488 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Food ◽  
The World ◽  
Present Rate

Human beings have broken the ecological ‘law’ that says that big, predatory animals are rare. Two crucial innovations in particular have enabled us to alter the planet to suit ourselves and thus permit unparalleled expansion: speech (which implies instant transmission of an open-ended range of conscious thoughts) and agriculture (which causes the world to produce more human food than unaided nature would do). However, natural selection has not equipped us with a long-term sense of self-preservation. Our population cannot continue to expand at its present rate for much longer, and the examples of many other species suggests that expansion can end in catastrophic collapse. Survival beyond the next century in a tolerable state seems most unlikely unless all religions and economies begin to take account of the facts of biology. This, if it occurred, would be a step in cultural evolution that would compare in import with the birth of agriculture.

scholarly journals Christian interpretation of anthropological guidelines for lawmaking

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (Especial) ◽  
pp. 511-522
Author(s):  
Mykola Nesprava ◽  
Mykhailo Rizak ◽  
Vladlen Volkov ◽  
Oksana Voluiko ◽  
Yevhenii Skrypa
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Synergistic Interaction ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Law

The objective of the article is to reveal the main foundations of human creation enshrined in Christian doctrine, which serve as axiological guidelines for the elaboration of laws, providing a humanistic content of the law. The research methodology is based on dialectical, formal-dogmatic, sociological, comparative-legal and documentary methods. The results of the study demonstrate that theocentrism and anthropocentrism are not opposed to each other in Christianity, but rather are combined into an integrated theological and anthropological picture of a man. Considering this prism of legal consciousness as a reflection of the supreme law of God, the authors refute the secular-positivist view of "homo juridicus" as a soulless subject of law and emphasize the role of the Gospel commandments as a guide. for the elaboration of laws. It is concluded that the Christian vision of the synergistic interaction of the human being and the legislator through the unity of three incarnations: "homo spiritus" - "homo sapiens" - "homo juridicus" indicates the values, which are designed to ensure humanization of the law through the humanization of social relations in general.

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