Evolutionary Systems: Biological and Epistemological Perspectives on Selection and Self-OrganizationGertrudis van de Vijver, G. Vijver, Stanley N. Salthe, M. Delpos The three well known revolutions of the past centuries - the Copernican, the Darwinian and the Freudian - each in their own way had a deflating and mechanizing effect on the position of humans in nature. They opened up a richness of disillusion: earth acquired a more modest place in the universe, the human body and mind became products of a long material evolutionary history, and human reason, instead of being the central, immaterial, locus of understanding, was admitted into the theater of discourse only as a materialized and frequently out-of-control actor. Is there something objectionable to this picture? Formulated as such, probably not. Why should we resist the idea that we are in certain ways, and to some degree, physically, biologically or psychically determined? Why refuse to acknowledge the fact that we are materially situated in an ever evolving world? Why deny that the ways of inscription (traces of past events and processes) are co-determinative of further "evolutionary pathways"? Why minimize the idea that each intervention, of each natural being, is temporally and materially situated, and has, as such, the inevitable consequence of changing the world? The point is, however, that there are many, more or less radically different, ways to consider the "mechanization" of man and nature. There are, in particular, many ways to get the message of "material and evolutionary determination", as well as many levels at which this determination can be thought of as relevant or irrelevant. |
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Page 165
... potential with a thermodynamic force F , ( a force being the gradient of a potential ) the magnitude of which is a measure of the difference between them . AE ' is the energy flow at the input , the drain on the potential which is ...
... potential with a thermodynamic force F , ( a force being the gradient of a potential ) the magnitude of which is a measure of the difference between them . AE ' is the energy flow at the input , the drain on the potential which is ...
Page 170
... potential , and the second law states that all natural processes proceed so as to maximize the entropy ( or equivalently minimize or dissipate the potential ) , while energy , at the same time is entirely conserved . The balance ...
... potential , and the second law states that all natural processes proceed so as to maximize the entropy ( or equivalently minimize or dissipate the potential ) , while energy , at the same time is entirely conserved . The balance ...
Page 173
... potential or maximize the entropy at the fastest rate given the constraints . This is a statement of the law of ... potential and the cabin - woods system as a consequence will produce flows of energy as heat from the cabin to the woods ...
... potential or maximize the entropy at the fastest rate given the constraints . This is a statement of the law of ... potential and the cabin - woods system as a consequence will produce flows of energy as heat from the cabin to the woods ...
Contents
Prospects for conver | 21 |
MICHAEL CONRAD Towards high evolvability dynamics | 33 |
On the origin of final cause | 45 |
Copyright | |
23 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Evolutionary Systems: Biological and Epistemological Perspectives on ... G. Vijver,Stanley N. Salthe,M. Delpos No preview available - 2010 |
Evolutionary Systems: Biological and Epistemological Perspectives on ... G. Vijver,Stanley N. Salthe,M. Delpos No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
adaptation adaptationism adaptationist alleles Aristotle attractors Autopoiesis behavior Bénard cells biological systems Buddhist Callebaut Cambridge Cartesian circle causal cells cognitive complex systems components concept constraints construction context Csányi Darwinian Darwinism defined Depew described developmental dynamics ecological effects emergence energy entities environment epigenetic epistemic equation evolution evolutionary epistemology Evolutionary Systems evolving example explain external final cause formal formal cause function genes genetic genotypic hierarchical human idea identity interactions internal descriptive internal measurement interpretation Kampis Kornwachs laws Lewontin lineage living systems material mathematical Maynard Smith means mechanisms molecules mutation natural selection neo-Darwinism objects observer operators optimality organization origin Pattee perception perspective phenomena phenotype Philosophy physical pleiotropic population possible potential pragmatic information principle problem properties relation replication Salthe self-organization semantic semiotic sense species Spinoza structure Swenson symbols syntactic thermodynamic traits University Press Vijver Weber Wimsatt