Most people who are regular consumers of psychoactive drugs are not drug addicts, nor will they ever become addicts. In neurobiological theories, non-addictive drug consumption is acknowledged only as a “necessary” prerequisite for addiction, but not as a stable and widespread behavior in its own right. This target article proposes a new neurobiological framework theory for non-addictive psychoactive drug consumption, introducing the concept of “drug instrumentalization.” Psychoactive drugs are consumed for their effects on mental states. Humans are able to learn (...) that mental states can be changed on purpose by drugs, in order to facilitate other, non-drug-related behaviors. We discuss specific “instrumentalization goals” and outline neurobiological mechanisms of how major classes of psychoactive drugs change mental states and serve non-drug-related behaviors. We argue that drug instrumentalization behavior may provide a functional adaptation to modern environments based on a historical selection for learning mechanisms that allow the dynamic modification of consummatory behavior. It is assumed that in order to effectively instrumentalize psychoactive drugs, the establishment of and retrieval from a drug memory is required. Here, we propose a new classification of different drug memory subtypes and discuss how they interact during drug instrumentalization learning and retrieval. Understanding the everyday utility and the learning mechanisms of non-addictive psychotropic drug use may help to prevent abuse and the transition to drug addiction in the future. (shrink)

La "cause de la phénoménologie" s'est trouvée défendue et illustrée en France par de multiples oeuvres, qui, au-delà même de la réception des pensées de Husserl et de Heidegger, ont aujourd'hui des effets en retour sur les pays germaniques d'où la phénoménologie est originaire. Organisées par Christian Sommer et Jean-Claude Monod, deux journées d'étude ont réuni aux Archives Husserl de Paris les principaux représentants de la "nouvelle phénoménologie" en France. Les textes du présent volume évoquent et réévaluent les évolutions, les (...) thèmes et les débats qui ont marqué le champ phénoménologique français depuis le début des années 1980. (shrink)

We agree with MacNeilage's claim that speech stems from a volitional vocalization pathway between the cingulate and the supplementary motor area (SMA). We add the vocal self- monitoring system as the first recruitment of the Broca-Wernicke circuit. SMA control for “frames” is supported by wrong consonant-vowel recurring utterance aphasia and an imaging study of quasi-reiterant speech. The role of Broca's area is questioned in the emergence of “content,” because a primary motor mapping, embodying peripheral constraints, seems sufficient. Finally, we reject (...) a uniquely peripheral account of speech emergence. (shrink)

This book explores Nietzsche's philosophical naturalism in its historical context, showing that his position is best understood against the background of encounters between neo-Kantianism and the life sciences in the nineteenth century. Analyzing most of Nietzsche's writings from the late 1860s onwards, Christian J. Emden reconstructs Nietzsche's naturalism and argues for a new understanding of his account of nature and normativity. Emden proposes historical reasons why Nietzsche came to adopt the position he did; his genealogy of values and his account (...) of a will to power are as much influenced by Kantian thought as they are by nineteenth-century debates on teleology, biological functions, and theories of evolution. This rich and wide-ranging study will be of interest to scholars and students of Nietzsche, the history of modern philosophy, intellectual history, and history of science. (shrink)

Whether evolutionary change can occur by genetic assimilation, or more generally by genetic accommodation, remains controversial. Here we examine some of the experimental evidence for both phenomena. Several experiments in Drosophila suggest that assimilation is possible, and a new paper1 shows that a color polyphenism in the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, can evolve by genetic accommodation. We argue that genetic accommodation, including assimilation, is a plausible mechanism in evolution; however, more work is required to test how this mechanism acts (...) and how often it is involved in evolutionary change. BioEssays 28: 868–873, 2006. © 2006 Wiley periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This essay considers and evaluates recent results and arguments from classical chaotic systems theory and non-relativistic quantum mechanics that pertain to the question of whether our world is deterministic or indeterministic. While the classical results are inconclusive, quantum mechanics is often assumed to establish indeterminism insofar as the measurement process involves an ineliminable stochastic element, even though the dynamics between two measurements is considered fully deterministic. While this latter claim concerning the Schrödinger evolution must be qualified, the former fully (...) depends on a resolution of the measurement problem. Two alleged proofs that nature is indeterministic, relying, in turn, on Gleason's theorem and Conway and Kochen's recent 'free will theorem', are shown to be wanting qua proofs of indeterminism. We are thus left with the conclusion that the determinism question remains open. (shrink)

Steels & Belpaeme (S&B) refer to the neural plausibility and evolutionary plausibility of their algorithms. Although this is not central to their goal of effective artificial agents, their algorithms are not neurally or evolutionarily plausible. Their communication games are interesting, and more complex games would lead to more effective agents. However, the algorithms could be improved either by using standard subsymbolic algorithms or by algorithms that are really neurally or evolutionarily plausible.

The task of this paper is to ground the notion of cyberethics of co-operation. The evolution of modern society has resulted in a shift from industrial society towards informational capitalism. This transformation is a multidimensional shift that affects all aspects of society. Hence also the ethical system of society is penetrated by the emergence of the knowledge society and ethical guidelines for the information age are needed. Ethical issues and conflicts in the knowledge society are connected to topics of (...) ecological and social sustainability. For information ethics and cyberethics, the sustainable design of society, social, and socio-technological systems is important. In this context the notions of sustainability and co-operation are discussed. Based on these categories, the approach of cyberethics of co-operation can be theoretically grounded. (shrink)

In what sense can we aim to moralize the very system upon which we rely to formulate our notions of morality? This is the most fundamental issue raised by any discussion around the “moralization of capitalism”. In an even more general manner, one could express the issue in terms of the puzzle of second-order morality: How exactly is it possible to pass a moral judgment on our categories of moral judgment? How can our norms of morality be said to be (...) “immoral”, thus calling for “(re-)moralization”? This puzzle rests, of course, on a particular version of historicism to which I will subscribe here: Capitalism as a system of practical interaction structures, and hence as a culture, has evolved out of moral imperatives and hence must be seen as a reflection and an enactment, rather than a violation, of these moral imperatives. Thus, as long as the moral norms and the interaction structures remain congruent, there is no straightforward to way to call capitalism “immoral”. The only legitimate reason to issue a call for its “(re-)moralization” is if this congruence has come undone; but how can that be, if not because some set of processes internal to capitalism has actually altered either (a) the structures of interaction, or (a’) the norms of morality, or (a”) both, in such a way that (b) they have become maladjusted and (c) this maladjustment is actually experienced as such by agents who are able to effect the required readjustments? But how can such internal processes be triggered? This is the puzzle of second-order morality when applied to capitalism. (shrink)

Focusing primarily on papers and books discussing the evolutionary and systematic interpretation of the Cambrian animal fossils from the Burgess Shale fauna, this paper explores the role of epistemic values in the context of a discipline striving to establish scientific authority within a larger domain of epistemic problems and issues . The focal point of this analysis is the repeated claims by paleontologists that the study of fossils gives their discipline a unique ‘historical dimension’ that makes it possible for them (...) to unravel important aspects of evolution invisible to scientists who study the extant biosphere. The first part of the paper explores the shifting of emphasis in the writings of paleontologists between two strategies that employ opposing views on the classical positivist and physicalist ideal of science. The second part analyzes paleontologists’ claims of privileged access to life’s historical dimension in a situation where a theoretical upheaval occurring independent of the epistemical problem at hand completely shifts the standards for evaluating the legitimacy of various knowledge claims. Though the various strategies employed in defending the privileged historical perspective of paleontology have been disparate and, to an extent contradictory, each impinges on the acceptance of a specific epistemic ideal or set of values and success or failure of each depends on the compatibility of this ideal with the surrounding community of scientists. (shrink)

This short paper proposes an application of Condorcet's jury theorem to animal group decisions.

This volume assembles leading scholars from a range of disciplines to debate multiculturalism in theory and practice. The volume is grouped around four central questions raised by multiculturalism; Is universalism ethnocentric?; Does multiculturalism threaten citizenship?; Do minorities require group rights?; and what can Europe learn from North America? The book aims to answer these questions by moving the debate about multicultural questions into a more consensual mode. The authors show a resistance to either endorsing or rejecting multiculturalism, but a preference (...) for dissecting and differentiating the concrete historical and geographical contexts in which specified versions of multiculturalism make sense, and others in which they do not. (shrink)

This paper explores a Rastafari perspective on consciousness development and relates this to developmental stage theories of consciousness evolution from the psychology of religion. The empirical material is from fieldwork on an online Rastafari community with global reach but run by a group based in Trinidad. The people on this particular forum align with the “spiritual, but not religious” trend in contemporary religiosity, which means they are more focused on interior questions of consciousness raising than on religious externals. This (...) paper interprets empirical material from the dialogues on this forum in light of Rastafari theorist Dennis Forsythe. It compares this Rastafari theory of stages of consciousness, symbolized by the animals Anancy, lion, and lamb, to developmental theories of consciousness evolution. These are drawn from psychology and the psychology of religion (Maslow 1970; Kohlberg 1981; Fowler 1981; Gilligan 1982; Wilber 2007), which focus on preconventional, traditional, modern, pluralist, and integral stages. (shrink)

What does Kant claim to have shown in the Resolution of the Third Antinomy? A recent publication by Bernd Ludwig shows the shortcomings of a fairly broad interpretative consensus around the claim that all that is at stake in the RTA is the mode of logical possibility. I argue that there is a lack of clarity as to what logical possibility, and that the real possibility of transcendental freedom is examined in much of the RTA. Ludwig’s own proposal that Kant (...) shows the real possibility of TF however faces major problems. I formulate an alternative proposal that pays due attention to the claim of the antinomy’s thesis, the evolution of the argument of the RTA, and Kant’s later textual references to it. This also deals with the thorny issue of the relation between practical and TF. (shrink)

The Continuum Companion to Ethics offers a definitive guide to a key area of contemporary philosophy. The book covers all the fundamental questions asked by meta-ethics and normative ethical theory - areas that have continued to attract interest historically as well as topics that have emerged more recently as active areas of research. Fourteen specially commissioned essays from an international team of experts reveal where important work continues to be done in the field and, most valuably, the exciting new directions (...) the field is taking. The Companion explores issues pertaining to moral methodology, moral realism, ethical expressivism, constructivism and the error theory, morality and practical reason, moral psychology, morality and religion, consequentialism, Kantian ethics, virtue ethics, feminist ethics, moral particularism, experimental ethics, and biology, evolution, and ethics. Featuring a series of indispensable research tools, including important technical terms in ethics, a historical chronology, an extensive overview of contemporary meta-ethics and normative ethical theory, a detailed list of internet resources for research in ethics, and a thorough list of recommended works for further study, this is the essential reference tool for anyone working in contemporary philosophical ethics. (shrink)

We investigate the long-term evolution of degree-degree correlations (assortativity) in functional brain networks from epilepsy patients. Functional networks are derived from continuous multi-day, multi-channel electroencephalographic data, which capture a wide range of physiological and pathophysiological activities. In contrast to previous studies which all reported functional brain networks to be assortative on average, even in case of various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, we observe large fluctuations in time-resolved degree-degree correlations ranging from assortative to dissortative mixing. Moreover, in some patients these (...) fluctuations exhibit some periodic temporal structure which can be attributed, to a large extent, to daily rhythms. Relevant aspects of the epileptic process, particularly possible pre-seizure alterations, contribute marginally to the observed long-term fluctuations. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that physiological and pathophysiological activity may modify functional brain networks in a different and process-specific way. We evaluate factors that possibly influence the long-term evolution of degree-degree correlations. (shrink)

Les philosophes naturels du XVIIe siècle accordent une importance croissante aux faits nouveaux et singuliers construits par des démonstrations spectaculaires réalisées devant témoins. Cet essai tente de montrer comment cette évolution s’opère comme une synthèse de deux courants auparavant disjoints, d’un côté la pratique coopérative et informelle, critique sans être véhémente, de savants dont Mersenne constitue un bon exemple dans les années 1630, et de l’autre celle des alchimistes, remettant radicalement en cause les savoirs traditionnels tout en restant viscéralement attachés (...) au secret. On montrera comment le cercle parisien qui se réunit autour du même Mersenne au milieu du siècle pour débattre des expériences du vide réalise cette synthèse particulière. Mais dans une communauté érudite intéressée surtout à employer les faits expérimentaux comme matériau nouveau dans les disputes philosophiques, et pour laquelle la correspondance privée constitue la principale source d’information sous la forme de narrations circonstanciées par des témoins des événements singuliers survenus au cours de démonstrations expérimentales, le récit à la première personne apparaît comme une ressource superflue lorsqu’il s’agit de passer au format imprimé; Pascal, par exemple, recourt dans ses traités à une description des expériences se déployant sur un registre hypothétique et syllogistique qui exclut la narration directe. Le succès ultérieur des techniques matérielles et littéraires administrant la preuve en donnant à voir le protocole expérimental peut alors être mieux compris si l’on considère la parenté que celles-ci entretiennent avec les pratiques de la lecture publique traditionnelles dans les cercles érudits, proximité qui leur permet d’enrichir la signification et d’accroître la force de persuasion de l’expérience artificielle aux yeux des mêmes audiences. (shrink)

In philosophy of science concept formation and reduction is usually discussed with respect to definability. In the paper at hand this discussion is slightly expanded to an investigation of concept formation and reduction by analogies. It is argued that many kinds of such analogies bear some important features of partial contextual definitions. -/- With the help of a detailed investigation of the so-called gene-meme-analogy it is then demonstrated how the meme-concept is introduced via analogies into an expanded theory of (cultural) (...) evolution. As a consequence it is shown that the diversity of meanings of the meme-concept fits into the current state of establishing this analogy. (shrink)

The 1969-72 period bas shown an evolution in the belgian european policy. White instituional orthodoxy and federalist teleology had prevailed in the sixties, some pragmatism has been added since Prime minister Gaston Eyskens met President Pompidou in Paris in june 1972. Belgium accepts the launching of a cooperation among the national foreign policies outside the sphere of the EC institutions; regular summits of heads of government are also agreed on. Pragmatism doesn't weaken however the belgian concerns about orthodoxy. Belgian (...) diplomacy is claiming a twofold orthodoxy. The "de lege fata" one insists on the compliance of the institutional practises with the legal provisions of the Treaties and on the extension of the scope of the EC policies by using the faculty provided by art. 235 EC. The constant refusal of the so called "compromis de Luxembourg" and the recurrent plea for the qualified majority voting, or the emphasis put on the powers of the Commission illustrate this kind of orthodoxy. The "de lege ferenda" orthodoxy consists of preventing institutional evolutions from closing the road to the long term federalist aims belgian diplomacy is still working towards for European integration. Hence some dilemmas between pragmatism on short term issues and some dogmatic rigidities which refer to the federalist finality. The discussion about twofold orthodoxy is grounded on a belgian positions' analysis on european affairs which covers the period from the end of the sixties to the belgian positions at the 1996 IGC. By the future perspective of a broader EU enlargement, Belgium will also face a new challenge: will its relative political weight be decreasing in the same time theUnion will extend? Which will be the price for accepting less Belgium in a larger Union? (shrink)

Cet ouvrage proposé un panorama complet des débats contemporains en philosophie de la biologie. Il consacre une large place à la représentation des principes fondateurs de la théorie de l'évolution et des principaux concepts et lois génétiques, ainsi qu'à l'examen des questions posées par la sélection naturelle comme par la notion de fitness et l'unité de sélection. L'auteur discute en ces pages la définition du vivant et la potion de fonction biologique, et développe notamment une conception causale et mécaniste des (...) processus biologiques dans une perspective réductionniste originale. Clair et didactique, cet ouvrage résume systématiquement l'état actuel des connaissances, présente les différents concepts et positions, propose une évaluation des résultats et montre que les questions ouvertes dépasse largement le seul cadre de la biologie. Il vise ainsi à contribuer au développement d'une philosophie de la biologie nouvelle, en lien étroit avec la philosophie des sciences dans son ensemble. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage présente le destin de la métaphysique au siècle des Lumières. Derrière le schéma classique d'une substitution de l'anthropologie à la métaphysique caractérisant les Lumières, les études réunies dans ce volume montrent l'évolution du champ de la métaphysique, sa redéfinition, ses métamorphoses au sein d'une modernité en pleine évolution. L'intérêt est de dévoiler comment la métaphysique évolue, s'adapte à de nouvelles problématiques, et cela en tenant compte de la complexité des situations particulières propres aux Lumières européennes.

Das gegenwärtig zunehmende Auseinanderdriften von Kulturwissenschaft und Humanbiologie verdeutlicht das noch immer bestehende Desiderat einer integrativen Anthropologie, die dualistische ebenso wie reduktionistische Konzeptionen zu überwinden vermag. Der vorliegende Band, hervorgegangen aus einer interdisziplinären Projektgruppe an der Universität Heidelberg, lotet aus, welche Rolle das neue Paradigma der Verkörperung für die Fundierung einer solchen Anthropologie spielen kann. Aus der Perspektive so unterschiedlicher Disziplinen wie Philosophie, Theologie, Psychologie, Neurobiologie, Biomechanik und Paläoanthropologie untersuchen die Autoren, welche Bedeutung der konstitutionelle Aufbau des Leibes für zentrale (...) anthropologische Forschungsfragen hat. Die Einheit von Wahrnehmung und Bewegung, die Entstehung von Sprache und Denken und die Evolution des Menschen stehen dabei im Vordergrund. Der Ansatz bei der Verkörperung des Menschen bildet belastbare Brücken zwischen den verschiedenen disziplinären Anthropologien und erschließt neue Perspektiven für die zukünftige anthropologische Forschung. (shrink)

Tort law and liability insurance have a complex interaction in which each shapes the evolution and effects of the other. This interaction and its many forms and facets in different international contexts must be comprehended to understand fully the ethical responsibilities of liability insurers. This essay builds on previous scholarship on the tort law–liability insurance interaction through a series of observations from the perspective of a global reinsurer. It seeks in part to extend previous analyses of this interaction by (...) also considering issues in the developing world. It seeks to make some normative questions and stances explicit concerning this interaction, as well as to identify some empirical questions that still need to be answered. The responsibility of liability insurers includes ethically shaping the responsibility of others in interaction with tort law in countless diverse situations. (shrink)

The term “scientism” is often used as a denunciation of an uncritical ideological confidence in the abilities of science. Contrary to this practice, this article argues that there are feasible ways of defending scientism as a set of ideologies for political reform. Rejecting an essentialist approach to scientism as well as the view that ideologies have a solely negative effect on history, it argues that the political effect of ideologies inspired by a belief system (including scientism and various religions) must (...) be judged case by case—and that the appearance of complex politico‐scientific problems such as the climate problem in effect warrants some kind of ideological scientism. (shrink)

In the context of climate change and its accompanying impact on stress and mental health, we argue that positive psychology may benefit from an integration of spirituality to better support people’s wellbeing. Starting with an overview of climate change’s impact on wellbeing and health, we explore the paradoxical and complex relationship between humans and nature. Following which, we will briefly define spirituality and present an evocative metaphor of the wave to portray the evolution of the field of PP. In (...) our conclusive remarks, we argue that the field of PP has gradually become more open to integrate spirituality, as it evolves towards greater complexity. In addition to meaning, some spiritual perspectives potentially relevant to positive psychology facilitate an ecocentric view which allow for a better understanding of the paradoxical human-nature relationship, as we struggle to deal with the complex issues related to climate change. (shrink)

participe et contribue à l’évolution psychique du sujet. L’espace familial et maternel peut réintroduire une image du père dans toutes ses composantes identificatoires et dans sa symbolique de séparation... Les pathologies rencontrées chez les enfants, pris en charge par les institutions médico-sociales, nécessitent des procédures cliniques nouvelles qui concilient autant la prise en compte du contexte social que la problématique de la famille et la souffrance psychique du sujet. Le travail thérapeutique à domicile est une possibilité tout à fait intéressante (...) pour que l’ensemble de la famille. (shrink)

The dynamics of calcium in the cortical cytoplasm of plant cells has been modeled by Goodwin & Trainor (1985) using a mechanochemical field theory based on the interaction between calcium ions and the cytoskeleton. The resulting mathematical model is a system of two non-linear partial differential equations which rule the evolution of the free calcium concentration and of the cytogel strain field in the cytoplasm. According to the values of parameters such as: calcium diffusion coefficient, strength of the calcium-strain (...) coupling, gel elasticity or total calcium concentration, this system may be stable or unstable around an homogeneous equilibrium state. With the aid of numerical simulations, various kinds of solutions have been observed. When inertial forces ar neglected or for low values of the gel density, most of the solutions are asymptotically stable and are reached after a more or less complex transient. But for higher values of the volumetric density more complex solutions may exist, periodic in time and space or eventually chaotic. (shrink)

Cet article examine les formes du discours des lettrés chinois sur la prostitution de la fin du XIXe siècle à la Première Guerre mondiale. Il met en lumière le caractère ambivalent de ce discours qui, centré sur les courtisanes - la strate supérieure du monde de la prostitution - constitue une forme d’apologie ou de vision positive de la prostitution. Cette vision a pour partie imprégné la représentation collective de la prostitution en Chine. Toutefois cette représentation univoque masque un discours (...) « en creux » clairement critique, voire méprisant, à l’égard de la prostitution ordinaire. Ce discours ambivalent a donné prise à une remise en cause progressive à mesure que l’évolution sociale et intellectuelle minait le statut des courtisanes et qu’une nouvelle vision issue des nouveaux média (essentiellement la presse) faisait de la prostitution un enjeu du débat public. (shrink)

The notion of “representation” is central to Kant’s transcendental philosophy. But naturalism and mind-body reductionism tend to reduce talk of (first-person) representation to stories of (third-person) causality and evolution. How does Kant fare in this context?

Résumé Le Messie n’est pas le produit de l’évolution historique, mais surgissement de l’inattendu du Règne de Dieu. Ce que vient interrompre le Messie, c’est la faute. L’histoire entendue comme lieu de la culpabilité conduit à lier souffrance et expiation de la faute. Le lien entre souffrance et expiation est ici rejeté car il ne fait pas droit à la complexité du réel et méconnaît la présence discrète de Dieu qui, par son Esprit, assiste ceux qui œuvrent à la justice. (...) Le jugement entendu comme justice faite aux victimes conclut l’histoire perçue comme procès entre oppresseurs et opprimés; en rejetant le méchant, le jugement n’échappe pas à l’ambiguïté d’une semi-victoire de Dieu. Le projet de Dieu peut-il échouer? Jésus est à la fois le juge et l’avocat pour faire justice aux victimes et entendre la plaidoirie des malfaiteurs. En vertu de cette double fonction christique, la fin de l’histoire apparaît comme indécidable. (shrink)

Part 1. Lecture 1. What is big history? ; Lecture 2. Moving across multiple scales ; Lecture 3. Simplicity and complexity ; Lecture 4. Evidence and the nature of science ; Lecture 5. Threshold 1, Origins of Big Bang cosmology ; Lecture 6. How did everything begin? ; Lecture 7. Threshold 2, The first stars and galaxies ; Lecture 8. Threshold 3, Making chemical elements ; Lecture 9. Threshold 4, The earth and the solar system ; Lecture 10. The early (...) earth, a short history ; Lecture 11. Plate tectonics and the earth's geography ; Lecture 12. Threshold 5, Life -- Part 2. Lecture 13. Darwin and natural selection ; Lecture 14. The evidence for natural selection ; Lecture 15. The origins of life ; Lecture 16. Life on earth, single-celled organisms ; Lecture 17. Life on earth, multi-celled organisms ; Lecture 18. Hominines ; Lecture 19. Evidence on hominine evolution ; Lecture 20. Threshold 6, What makes humans different? ; Lecture 21. Homo sapiens, the first humans ; Lecture 22. Paleolithic lifeways ; Lecture 23. Change in the Paleolithic Era ; Lecture 24. Threshold 7, agriculture -- Part 3. Lecture 25. The origins of agriculture ; Lecture 26. The first agrarian societies ; Lecture 27. Power and its origins ; Lecture 28. Early power structures ; Lecture 29. From villages to cities ; Lecture 30. Sumer, the first agrarian civilization ; Lecture 31. Agrarian civilizations in other regions ; Lecture 32. The world that agrarian civilizations made ; Lecture 33. Long trends, expansion and state power ; Lecture 34. Long trends, rates of innovation ; Lecture 35. Long trends, disease and Malthusian cycles ; Lecture 36. Comparing the world zones -- Part 4. Lecture 37. The Americas in the later Agrarian Era ; Lecture 38. Threshold 8, the modern revolution ; Lecture 39. The Medieval Malthusian Cycle, 500-1350 ; Lecture 40. The Early Modern Cycle, 1350-1700 ; Lecture 41. Breakthrough, the Industrial Revolution ; Lecture 42. Spread of the Industrial Revolution to 1900 ; Lecture 43. The 20th century ; Lecture 44. The world that the modern revolution made ; Lecture 45. Human history and the biosphere ; Lecture 46. The next 100 years ; Lecture 47. The next millennium and the remote future ; Lecture 48. Big history, humans in the cosmos. (shrink)

This paper examines two cosmological models of quantum gravity to investigate the foundational and conceptual issues arising from quantum treatments of the big bang. While the classical singularity is erased, the quantum evolution that replaces it may not correspond to classical spacetime: it may instead be a non-spatiotemporal region, which somehow transitions to a spatiotemporal state. The different kinds of transition involved are partially characterized, the concept of a physical transition without time is investigated, and the problem of empirical (...) incoherence for regions without spacetime is discussed. (shrink)

Comment les tendances lourdes de l’évolution du droit canonique depuis une cinquantaine d’années peuvent–elles contribuer à une analyse pluridisciplinaire des mutations de l’Église catholique elle-même? Peut-on discerner certains liens ou certains indices de connexité entre évolution du droit canonique et mutation de l’Église catholique dans les sociétés sécularisées de l’Europe du Nord-Ouest, voire entre les dysfonctionnements du premier et l’affaissement de la seconde? Le texte voudrait montrer comment une triple crise de légitimité, d’effectivité et de légalité du droit canonique met (...) en lumière l’évolution de l’Église catholique et les enjeux d’une nouvelle relation entre responsabilité et authenticité. (shrink)

Ever since proposals for generalizing the theory of natural evolution have been put forward, the aims and ambitions of both proponents and critics have differed widely. Some consider such proposals as merely metaphors, some as analogies, some aim at a real generalization and unification, and some have even proposed to work out full reductions. In this paper it is argued that these different forms of generalizing the theory of evolution can be systematically re-framed as different approaches for transferring (...) justification from the natural to the cultural realm, and that their differences are basically a matter of degree. With the help of such a classification it should become clearer what to expect, but also what not to expect from the different approaches. (shrink)

Philosophe majeur de notre epoque, Henri Maldiney a elabore une phenomenologie de l'existence centree sur l'Ouvert. Preconisant un - retour aux choses memes -, il refute radicalement la separation instauree entre sujet et objet, insistant sur l'experience de la rencontre comme signifiance insignifiable, transpossibilite et transpassibilite, recueil et deploiement. a partir notamment de Binswanger, Straus, Freud, Szondi, Heidegger et plus largement des textes classiques grecs, allemands, chinois, accordant une importance toute particuliere a l'art, il a contribue de maniere decisive a (...) une philosophie du sentir, du rythme et de l'avenement. Lors du colloque de Cerisy, qui a reuni chercheurs, praticiens et artistes, chacun s'est mis a l'epreuve de cette oeuvre magistrale. Les contributions rassemblees ici manifestent l'evolution et l'impact de cette pensee fondamentale pour le XXIe siecle.". (shrink)

Newell proposed that cognitive theories be developed in an effort to satisfy multiple criteria and to avoid theoretical myopia. He provided two overlapping lists of 13 criteria that the human cognitive architecture would have to satisfy in order to be functional. We have distilled these into 12 criteria: flexible behavior, real-time performance, adaptive behavior, vast knowledge base, dynamic behavior, knowledge integration, natural language, learning, development, evolution, and brain realization. There would be greater theoretical progress if we evaluated theories by (...) a broad set of criteria such as these and attended to the weaknesses such evaluations revealed. To illustrate how theories can be evaluated we apply these criteria to both classical connectionism and the ACT-R theory. The strengths of classical connectionism on this test derive from its intense effort in addressing empirical phenomena in such domains as language and cognitive development. Its weaknesses derive from its failure to acknowledge a symbolic level to thought. In contrast, ACT-R includes both symbolic and subsymbolic components. The strengths of the ACT-R theory derive from its tight integration of the symbolic component with the subsymbolic component. Its weaknesses largely derive from its failure, as yet, to adequately engage in intensive analyses of issues related to certain criteria on Newell's list. Key Words: cognitive architecture; connectionism; hybrid systems; language; learning; symbolic systems. (shrink)

Using the Burgess Shale controversies as a case-study, this paper argues that controversies within different domains may interact as to create a situation of "complicated intricacies," where the practicing scientist has to navigate through a context of multiple thought collectives. To some extent each of these collectives has its own dynamic complete with fairly negotiated standards for investigation and explanation, theoretical background assumptions and certain peculiarities of practice. But the intellectual development in one of these collectives may "spill over" having (...) far reaching consequences for the treatment of apparently independent epistemic problems that are subject of investigation in other thought collectives. For the practicing scientist it is necessary to take this complex web of interactions into account in order to be able to navigate in such a situation. So far most studies of academic science have had a tendency to treat the practicing scientist as members of a single (enclosed) thought collective that stands intellectually isolated from other similar entities unless the discipline was in a state of crisis of paradigmatic proportions. The richness and complexity of Burgess Shale debate shows that this encapsulated kind of analysis is not enough. (shrink)

Generalized Darwinism models cultural development as an evolutionary process, where traits evolve through variation, selection, and inheritance. Inheritance describes either a discrete unit’s transmission or a mixing of traits. In this article, we compare classical models of cultural evolution and generalized population dynamics with respect to blending inheritance. We identify problems of these models and introduce our model, which combines relevant features of both. Blending is implemented as success-based social learning, which can be shown to be an optimal strategy.

The aim of this paper is to show how James Mark Baldwin’s theory of Organic Selection can be fruitfully integrated with Alfred North Whitehead’s speculative philosophy, as part of the endeavor to develop a comprehensive process-relational evolutionary cosmology. In so doing, it provides an overview of the theory of Organic Selection and points to several concrete examples from the Galapagos Islands which elucidate Baldwin’s claim that organisms, through their selective activities and behavioral adjustments, play a causal role in directing evolutionary (...) processes. I emphasize some of the affinities between Baldwin’s theory of Organic Selection and Whitehead’s theory of prehensions, especially focusing on the latter’s notion of “prehensive selectivity.” Overall, while Baldwin’s theory of Organic Selection provides a biological ground for a comprehensive process-relational evolutionary cosmology to be developed, illuminating the importance of Whitehead’s theory of prehensions for evolutionary theory, Whitehead’s overall speculative scheme can, in turn, strengthen the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical foundations of Baldwin’s theory. In the course of merging the two views, I arrive at an enlarged conception of Organic Selection, placing it in context with Darwin’s principle of Natural Selection. At the end of the paper, I take up the resulting question of the ethics of selectivity in general, arguing that the merger of Baldwin’s and Whitehead’s ideas constitutes a “non-reductionistic critical pan-selectionism.” This position stands in contrast to the antagonistic standpoints of “Selectionism” and “Anti-Selectionism” in the ongoing debates over the ethical dimensions of Darwinian evolution. (shrink)

The rapid evolution of drug resistance remains a major obstacle for HIV therapy. The capacity of the virus for recombination is widely believed to facilitate the evolution of drug resistance. Here, we challenge this intuitive view. We develop a population genetic model of HIV replication that incorporates the processes of mutation, cellular superinfection, and recombination. We show that cellular superinfection increases the abundance of low fitness viruses at the expense of the fittest strains due to the mixing of (...) viral proteins during virion assembly. Moreover, we argue that whether recombination facilitates the evolution of drug resistance depends critically on how resistance mutations interact to determine viral fitness. Contrary to the commonly held belief, we find that, under the most plausible biological assumptions, recombination is expected to slow down the rate of evolution of multi‐drug‐resistant virus during therapy. BioEssays 26:180–188, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Sometimes, after years of painstaking work, someone presents a startling argument that seems to suddenly snatch the ground right out from under your feet. And it's back to square one. Such a conceptual trapdoor caught me by surprise a few years ago. For decades, I had been convinced it is simply inconceivable that subjectivity -- the interior experience of how consciousness feels -- could possibly emerge from a previously wholly objective world, that mind could evolve from ‘dead’ matter. It seemed (...) to me that the arguments of materialist philosophers, cognitive scientists and neuroscientists invariably missed the point. They always began with an assumption of ontological objectivity or physicality, and proceeded to show that that must be the source of consciousness. Well, of course, it had to be -- given their starting assumption. But what they were talking about wasn't consciousness at all. It was usually either some neural correlation, some computer analogue, or some complex and abstract linguistic deconstruction. Whatever their approach, the first-person experience of consciousness -- it's subjective feel -- always slipped through their grasp. They were looking at the problem from the third-person perspective -- from objectivity. And you can't get to here from there. (shrink)