The Fragility of Evolution: Part One

This article argues for a shift in evolutionary metaphor-from fitness and the elimination of the less fit to fragility and passage through fragile periods of change. Childhood, for example, can be viewed as state of protected weakness, allowing time for more neural development, learning, and play. Similarly, evolutionary change can be released precisely when competitive pressure is relaxed. The fragility of evolution in time extends to several biological domains. The genetic system exhibits a surprising fluidity, whether from mobile genetic elements or hypermutation due to stress. Through gene duplication, organisms build up redundancy, which can more readily diverge into novelty. With endo-symbiosis one organism becomes incorporated into another, merging genomes, membranes, and metabolisms. As a result novel structures and genetic restructuring occur, making for profound evolutionary change. In a sexual life cycle, gametes within a species group fuse and amplify subtle variation. Hybridization, or unions between atypical sexual partners, can cause instant speciation and an instability that leads to more evolution. With development organisms go through rapid morphological change and sensitive transition phases. Importantly, dissociation of developmental modules in both temporal and spatial ways allow for evolutionary novelty to emerge. Several lines of evidence lead to the hypothesis that the organism's inner matrix can respond to stresses and help shape a fluid genome. In a second article, three more biological domains will be examined, in which organisms and environment more obviously interpenetrate: the remarkably plastic neural/behavioral system, novel synergisms between organisms, and the multiple, complex dynamics of ecosystems-all of which help to generate life's outstanding diversity. Last, the protection of fragile human populations will be discussed.     

Jesus and Evolutionary Psychology,Two Agendas

Abstract

Transhumanism is a term used to describe the enhancement of human life through technology, seeking to overcome biological limits. Teilhard de Chardin has been described as a transhumanist, but a closer examination of his ideas reveals his distinction of ultrahumanism, a deepening of the whole evolutionary process in and through the human person. This paper examines ultrahumanism and Teilhard's vision of technology in the evolution of religion.     

Perfecting not Perfect: Christology and Pneumatology within an Imperfect Yet Purposeful Creation

Abstract

The issue of evolutionary theodicy remains an area of difficulty within the science–theology dialogue. The evolutionary understanding of life identifies a process where suffering and extinction are intrinsic; however, theology seeks to articulate God's loving goodness towards creation. Therefore the central question of evolutionary theodicy becomes: “How can a loving God act by such a process?” Within the view of theistic evolution, evolutionary theodicy has resulted in a deeper understanding of Christology and Pneumatology, as the whole of creation is understood to be moving towards its eschatological perfection in Christ.     

Salvaging the Biological Design Argument in Light of Darwinism?

It is a common assumption that biological organisms appear as though they were designed. Prior to the Darwinian revolution, the order of biological organisms was often taken as a sign of their divine Creator. It is also commonly argued that Darwinian evolutionary theory as a good explanation for the adaptive complexity of biology reveals this appearance to be merely an illusion. However, in recent philosophical discussion several defenses of the compatibility of divine design and Darwinian evolution have emerged. These defenses insist not only that divine design and evolution are compatible, but even that biological organisms can continue to function as pointers to the Creator, even in a Darwinian cosmos. This article explores and extends these recent arguments. I analyze four different strategies for arguing that the wisdom of the Creator is apparent in biological organisms. The basic underlying assumption is that the products of some larger whole can reflect the rationality and designedness of that whole.     

Niche construction, biological evolution, and cultural change

We propose a conceptual model that maps the causal pathways relating biological evolution to cultural change. It builds on conventional evolutionary theory by placing emphasis on the capacity of organisms to modify sources of natural selection in their environment (niche construction) and by broadening the evolutionary dynamic to incorporate ontogenetic and cultural processes. In this model, phenotypes have a much more active role in evolution than generally conceived. This sheds light on hominid evolution, on the evolution of culture, and on altruism and cooperation. Culture amplifies the capacity of human beings to modify sources of natural selection in their environments to the point where that capacity raises some new questions about the processes of human adaptation.     

Evolutionary Theologies and Divine Action1

Abstract

Two challenges loom large for efforts to develop a theology of evolution. The first is the problem of purpose: can evolutionary processes, in which chance plays so prominent a role, be understood as the context of God's purposive action? The second is the problem of the pervasiveness of suffering and death in evolution. To the extent that we succeed in responding to the first difficulty by giving an account of how God's purposes are enacted in the history of life, we deepen the conundrum about God's relation to natural evils. In particular, if we embrace evolution as God's clever way of making life make itself, we will find it difficult to sustain the classical theological claim that death is a disruptive interloper in God's good creation.     

Development and natural kinds

While philosophers tend to consider a single type of causal history, biologists distinguish between two kinds of causal history: evolutionary history and developmental history. This essay studies the peculiarity of development as a criterion for the individuation of biological traits and its relation to form, function, and evolution. By focusing on examples involving serial homologies and genetic reprogramming, we argue that morphology (form) and function, even when supplemented with evolutionary history, are sometimes insufficient to individuate traits. Developmental mechanisms bring in a novel aspect to the business of classification—identity of process-type—according to which entities are type-identical across individuals and natural kinds in virtue of the fact that they form and develop through similar processes. These considerations bear important metaphysical implications and have potential applications in several areas of philosophy.     

Fragility of happiness moderates the influence of negative predictors of subjective well-Being

Background and Objectives: Valuing happiness, negative life circumstances, and neuroticism have been found to negatively predict subjective well-being (SWB). It was hypothesized that holding fragility of happiness beliefs (the belief that happiness is fleeting and may easily turn into less favorable states) would moderate the relationships between these predictors and SWB.

Methods: The sample consisted of 338 Korean participants who responded to an online survey (M_age?=?26.19). Multiple regression with centered variables was used to test the hypotheses.

Results: Consistent with the hypotheses, the results showed that fragility of happiness had an exacerbating effect on these negative associations. That is, the negative relationships between the predictors and SWB were stronger for individuals who reported higher fragility of happiness.

Conclusions: These results indicate that people’s notions of the nature of well-being may come to exacerbate the impact of negative predictors of SWB.     

The Evolutionary Challenge for Technology

The evolutionary challenge for technology in the third millennium is one of designing the vehicles for sustainable human and societal development in partnership with earth. The challenge calls for the conscious creation of evolutionary systems-not through the "hard technologies" that shape and mold the physical infrastructure of our planet, but through "soft technologies" that augment creative and constructive processes of human interaction. Through them, humanity has the opportunity to create the conditions for the emergence of a true learning society at both regional and global levels. The meaning of key terms such as evolution, technology, and development must be explored if we are to create a shared understanding of the contemporary survival challenges faced by humanity. This paper explores both the promise and the threat faced by a techno-civilization such as is emerging on our planet in the early twenty-first century.     

Biological and Cultural Evolution in a Common Universal Trend of Increasing Complexity

In the present article, a depiction of complexity versus time will be used for the construction of a novel form of a tree of life, called The Pattern of Life, comprising the biological, cultural, and scientific forms of the evolutionary process. This diagram accentuates the implication of the successive modifications of developmental programs, in the cultural and scientific realms coupled to a feedback mechanism that is decisive for the accelerating pace of complexity growth, also suggested to be of support of a cautious prediction of future evolution.     

Book Review: “Dimensions of Apeiron: A Topological Phenomenology of Space,Time, and Individuation”

This article suggests that it may be timely to action the relationship between design and evolution. While this view is not particularly new, the form of its expression here may be. It is noted that the exponential (possibly double exponential) rate of technological change, and the merging of the technological evolutionary lineage with those of biology, cognition, and socioculture is causing greatly accelerated evolution in these latter lineages. So rapid are these change processes that the attendant evolutionary time frames are becoming consonant with those of human design activities. Implications of these developments are outlined.     

The paradox of evolution

In the second (and expanded) version of Origin of the Species, Darwin introduces the term “advanced progressive development” in an attempt to describe the development of the more complex species from the simpler ones. More than 100 years have passed since Darwin tried to qualify and conceptualize the directional question of evolution, and very little progress has been made regarding the subject. The appearance of the species, from the simple to the more complex, is today an empirical fact, one which is no longer dependent upon any theory, including that of Darwin. This work examines the subject of advanced development in evolution by attempting to answer a few basic questions: What parameters may be used to evaluate complexity? Can any rules or order be identified as to the development of the species? Is the mechanism of “natural selection” sufficient to explain the direction or ‘purpose’ of evolution? Can the human race be included within the “rules” of Darwin's evolutionary theory?

The purpose of this essay is to develop and represent a new conceptual framework. Through this, it will be possible to offer a principle answer to all four questions.     

Biohistorical Naturalism and The Symbol "God"

This article has two parts, as the title suggests. The first sketches what I call biohistorical naturalism, a naturalistic position in which it is emphasized that the historicocultural development of our humanity, particularly our becoming linguistic/symbolical beings, is as central to our humanness as the biological evolutionary development that preceded (and continues to accompany) it. Apart from such a biohistorical emphasis (or its equivalent), naturalistic positions cannot give adequate accounts of human religiousness. The second part suggests that, although it would not be consistent with biohistorical naturalism to continue thinking of God in the traditional supernaturalistic way as "the Creator," it would be quite appropriate to understand God as the ongoing creativity (of truly novel realities) manifest in the long history of the universe, particularly in the evolution of life on Earth.     

Universal Plotkinism: A Review Of Henry Plotkin’s Darwin Machines And The Nature of Knowledge

Plotkin's Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge (1993) is a major contribution to the field of evolutionary epistemology and universal Darwinism. Evolutionary epistemology is the idea that evolution is a knowledge‐gaining process. Universal Darwinism holds that processes of variation and selection can be observed at different levels from the primary level of biological evolution (where genes code for phenotypes) through to individual learning and culture (where the units of variation and selection are not so clear cut). Although antithetical to behaviorism, large parts of Plotkin's thesis can be recast in nonmentalistic terms and exploited by behavior analysts. In particular, Plotkin's arguments for a strong commonality of process between biological evolution and individual learning offer directions for progress on questions that have long interested behavior analysts, such as: Why do some organisms learn? How did learning evolve? What is the relation between behavior and evolution? Although the paths of connection between evolution and individual behavior that Plotkin sketches are not yet fully clear of confusion, his is undoubtedly a very stimulating direction to explore.     

Darwin's Doubt Defended: Why Evolution Supports Skepticism

Abstract

Since the time of Charles Darwin, there has been concern that the theory of evolution provides fuel for skepticism. This paper presents new arguments that humanity's evolutionary origins are grounds for accepting that the universe is not as it appears to be to us. Firstly, it is argued that we should expect to have an incomplete capacity to comprehend the universe: both the mental limitations of all non-human life and the narrow interests of most humans provide evidence for this. Secondly, it is argued that we should expect the universe as it appears to us to have nothing more than a relationship of correlation to the universe as it actually is: both simplicity and the huge number of ways in which the universe may be represented provide reason for evolution to produce such a correlative system.     

Beyond Darwinism’s Eclipse: Functional Evolution,Biochemical Recapitulation and Spencerian Emergence in the 1920s and 1930s

During the 1920s and 1930s, many biologists questioned the viability of Darwin’s theory as a mechanism of evolutionary change. In the early 1940s, and only after a number of alternatives were suggested, Darwinists succeeded to establish natural selection and gene mutation as the main evolutionary mechanisms. While that move, today known as the neo-Darwinian synthesis, is taken as signalling a triumph of evolutionary theory, certain critical problems in evolution—in particular the evolution of animal function—could not be addressed with this approach. Here I demonstrate this through reconstruction of the evolutionary theory of Joseph Needham (1900–1995), who pioneered the biochemical study of evolution and development. In order to address such problems, Needham employed Herbert Spencer’s principles of emergence and Ernst Haeckel’s theory of recapitulation. While Needham did not reject Darwinian theory, Spencerian and Haeckelian frameworks happened to better fit his findings and their evolutionary relevance. He believed selectionist and genetic approaches to be important but far from sufficient for explaining how evolutionary transformations occur.     

The Evolution of Early Stuart Conformist Thought: The Liturgical Theology of John Donne

Abstract

An examination of John Donne's ambiguous understanding of prayer book worship and of the ideas he drew from both John Whitgift and Richard Hooker brings into relief a liturgical theology in the process of evolution. If Donne can be recognized as representative of conformists in the early Stuart church, the evolutionary nature of his theology allows for a less sharp and less dramatic portrait of the rise of ritualism in the 1620s and, perhaps, a different way of looking at the origins of Laudianism.     

The Biophilia Hypothesis and Life in the 21st Century: Increasing Mental Health or Increasing Pathology?

Wilson's biophilia hypothesis includes the claim that, as a consequence of evolution, humans have an innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes. A review of various literatures converges to support this central claim. One area of support for our innate affiliation with nature comes from research demonstrating increased psychological well-being upon exposure to natural features and environments. Support also comes from the strength and prevalence of phobic responses to stimuli of evolutionary significance and near absence of such responses to potentially dangerous human-made stimuli. That survival emotions of equivalent intensity and prevalence have failed to develop in response to modern life-threatening stimuli can be explained by the extremely rapid process of change and progress that has occurred post World War II and continues at an ever increasingly rapid pace. Given that our modern ways of living, as prescribed by Western industrialised culture, stand in stark contrast to our evolutionary history, it is proposed that we may currently be witnessing the beginnings of significant adverse outcomes for the human psyche.     

Comparing Visitors' Conceptions of Evolution: Examining Understanding Outside the United States

ABSTRACT

In contrast to the United States, other predominantly English-speaking countries generally have higher acceptance rates of evolutionary theory. This article explores whether natural history museum audiences in these regions also have fewer misconceptions about the underlying processes of evolution. Museum visitors in Great Britain, Canada, and Australia were asked to explain how evolution worked, as well as whether or not they believed that the theory was valid. Although findings suggest that these visitors were significantly less likely to reject evolution (compared with a recent investigation conducted at natural history museums across the United States), they were just as likely to harbor misconceptions as their American counterparts.     

The Ontological Roots of Human Science: the Message of Evolution—The Physics of Freedom (Choice)

The original proposal of H. H. Pattee (1971) Pattee, H. H. 1971. “Can life explain quantum mechanics?”. In Quantum theory and beyond, Edited by: Bastin, T. 307–319. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  [Google Scholar] of basing quantum theoretical measurement theory on the theory of the origin of life, and its far reaching consequences, is discussed in the light of a recently emerging biological paradigm of internal measurement. It is established that the “measurement problem” of quantum physics can, in principle, be traced back to the internal material constraints of the biological organisms, where choice is a fundamental attribute of the self-measurement of matter. In this light, which is shown to be a consequence of Pattee's original suggestion, it is proposed that biological evolution is a gradual liberation from the inert unity of “subject” and “object” of inanimate matter (as “natural law” and “initial conditions”), to a split biological existence of them and, as a consequence, the “message of evolution” is freedom, rather than complexity in itself. Some classical philosophical systems are brought into context to show that the epistemologies of several strictly philosophical systems of the social sciences are well acquainted with the problem and their solutions support our conclusions.