Unfinished Synthesis

Author : Niles Eldredge
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 1985-11-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780195365139

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Unfinished Synthesis by Niles Eldredge Pdf

This study provides a stimulating critique of contemporary evolutionary thought, analyzing the Modern Synthesis first developed by Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, and George Gaylord Simpson. The author argues that although only genes and organisms are taken as historic "individuals" in conventional theory, species, higher taxa, and ecological entities such as populations and communities should also be construed as individuals--an approach that yields the ecological and genealogical hierarchies that interact to produce evolution. This clearly stated, controversial work will provoke much debate among evolutionary biologists, systematists, paleontologists, and ecologists, as well as a wide range of educated lay readers.

Author : Niles Eldredge
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780195036336

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Unfinished Synthesis by Niles Eldredge Pdf

Written by an eminent evolutionary biologist (the co-founder of the theory of punctuated equilibria), this stimulating critique of modern evolutionary thought introduces an insightful theory concerning the ecological and genealogical hierarchies which interact to produce evolution. "Interesting and provocative....A must for those with a genuine interest in the processes of evolution."--Choice

Author : Filomena Maggino
Publisher : Springer
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2017-07-27
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783319605951

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Complexity in Society: From Indicators Construction to their Synthesis by Filomena Maggino Pdf

This volume discusses the many recent significant developments, and identifies important problems, in the field of social indicators. In the last ten years the methodology of multivariate analysis and synthetic indicators construction significantly developed. In particular, starting from the classical theory of composite indicators many interesting approaches have been developed to overcome the weaknesses of composites. This volume focuses on these recent developments in synthesizing indicators, and more generally, in quantifying complex phenomena.

Author : Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2020-11-10
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691221786

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Unifying Biology by Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis Pdf

Unifying Biology offers a historical reconstruction of one of the most important yet elusive episodes in the history of modern science: the evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s. For more than seventy years after Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, it was hotly debated by biological scientists. It was not until the 1930s that opposing theories were finally refuted and a unified Darwinian evolutionary theory came to be widely accepted by biologists. Using methods gleaned from a variety of disciplines, Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis argues that the evolutionary synthesis was part of the larger process of unifying the biological sciences. At the same time that scientists were working toward a synthesis between Darwinian selection theory and modern genetics, they were, according to the author, also working together to establish an autonomous community of evolutionists. Smocovitis suggests that the drive to unify the sciences of evolution and biology was part of a global philosophical movement toward unifying knowledge. In developing her argument, she pays close attention to the problems inherent in writing the history of evolutionary science by offering historiographical reflections on the practice of history and the practice of science. Drawing from some of the most exciting recent approaches in science studies and cultural studies, she argues that science is a culture, complete with language, rituals, texts, and practices. Unifying Biology offers not only its own new synthesis of the history of modern evolution, but also a new way of "doing history."

Author : Thomas E. Dickins,Benjamin J.A. Dickins
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 606 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2023-04-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783031220289

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Evolutionary Biology: Contemporary and Historical Reflections Upon Core Theory by Thomas E. Dickins,Benjamin J.A. Dickins Pdf

This book is reflecting upon core theories in evolutionary biology – in a historical as well as contemporary context. It exposes the main areas of interest for discussion, but more importantly draws together hypotheses and future research directions. The Modern Synthesis (MS), sometimes referred to as Standard Evolutionary Theory (SET), in evolutionary biology has been well documented and discussed, but was also critically scrutinized over the last decade. Researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds have claimed that there is a need for an extension to that theory, and have called for an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES). The book starts with an introductory chapter that summarizes the main points of the EES claim and indicates where those points receive treatment later in the book. This introduction to the subjects can either serve as an initiation for readers new to the debate, or as a guide for those looking to pursue particular lines of enquiry. The following chapters are organized around historical perspectives, theoretical and philosophical approaches and the use of specific biological models to inspect core ideas. Both empirical and theoretical contributions have been included. The majority of chapters are addressing various aspects of the EES position, and reflecting upon the MS. Some of the chapters take historical perspectives, analyzing various details of the MS and EES claims. Others offer theoretical and philosophical analyses of the debate, or take contemporary findings in biology and discuss those findings and their possible theoretical interpretations. All of the chapters draw upon actual biology to make their points. This book is written by practicing biologists and behavioral biologists, historians and philosophers - many of them working in interdisciplinary fields. It is a valuable resource for historians and philosophers of biology as well as for biologists. Chapters 8, 20, 22 and 33 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Author : Max K. Hecht,Bruce Wallace
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2013-11-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781461310433

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Evolutionary Biology by Max K. Hecht,Bruce Wallace Pdf

Evolutionary Biology, of which this is the twenty-second volume, continues to offer its readers a wide range of original articles, reviews, and commentaries on evolution, in the broadest sense of that term. The topics of the reviews range from anthropology, molecular evolution, and paleobiology to principles of systematics. In recent volumes, a broad spectrum of articles have appeared on such subjects as asymmetric sexual isolation, biochemical systematics in plants, species selection, DNA hybridization and phylogenetics, modes of evolution in Pleistocene rodents, and development and evolution of the vertebrate limb. We have also attempted to provide a forum for conƯ flicting ideas. Articles such as these, often too long for standard journals, are the material for Evolutionary Biology. The editors continue to solicit manuscripts on an international scale in an effort to see that everyone ofthe many facets of biological evolution is covered. Manuscripts should be sent to anyone of the following: Max K. Hecht, Department of Biology, Queens College of the City University of New York, Flushing, New York 11367; Bruce Wallace, Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, BlacksƯ burg, Virginia 24061; GhilleanT. Prance, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York 10458. The Editors vii Contents 1. Phylogeny of Early Vertebrate Skeletal Induction and Ossification Patterns ... 1 John G. Maisey Introduction: The Fossil Record.. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1.

Author : Maria Elice Brzezinski Prestes
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 423 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2023-10-10
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783031401657

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Understanding Evolution in Darwin's "Origin" by Maria Elice Brzezinski Prestes Pdf

This book aims to encourage the reading of "On the Origin of Species" and to include it in the teaching of evolution. With a comprehensive overview of the development of Darwin's theory, the volume provides relevant aspects of Darwin's life and work in connection with the broader context of his time. The historical and philosophical analysis, mirrored in the socio-cultural scope, enables the diachronic reading of the text. It is built on various sources of historians and philosophers of science and sheds fresh light on them. Its uniqueness is the broad structure that covers four parts: the pre-Darwinian concepts of species changes; some key elements of Darwin's pursuit of the causes of evolution, from his voyage on Beagle to the publication of his groundbreaking work; chapter-by-chapter analysis of the "Origin"; and subsequent developments in evolutionary thought. This book is of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, scholars in history, philosophy, and sociology of science and science education, as well as the general public.

Author : Brian G. Henning,Adam Scarfe
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2013-02-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780739174371

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Beyond Mechanism by Brian G. Henning,Adam Scarfe Pdf

It has been said that new discoveries and developments in the human, social, and natural sciences hang “in the air” (Bowler, 1983; 2008) prior to their consummation. While neo-Darwinist biology has been powerfully served by its mechanistic metaphysic and a reductionist methodology in which living organisms are considered machines, many of the chapters in this volume place this paradigm into question. Pairing scientists and philosophers together, this volume explores what might be termed “the New Frontiers” of biology, namely contemporary areas of research that appear to call an updating, a supplementation, or a relaxation of some of the main tenets of the Modern Synthesis. Such areas of investigation include: Emergence Theory, Systems Biology, Biosemiotics, Homeostasis, Symbiogenesis, Niche Construction, the Theory of Organic Selection (also known as “the Baldwin Effect”), Self-Organization and Teleodynamics, as well as Epigenetics. Most of the chapters in this book offer critical reflections on the neo-Darwinist outlook and work to promote a novel synthesis that is open to a greater degree of inclusivity as well as to a more holistic orientation in the biological sciences.

Author : Robert G. B. Reid
Publisher : Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : Science
ISBN : MINN:319510001961066

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Evolutionary Theory by Robert G. B. Reid Pdf

Author : Sharon E. Kingsland
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2023-07-25
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780300271577

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A Lab for All Seasons by Sharon E. Kingsland Pdf

The first book to chronicle how innovation in laboratory designs for botanical research energized the emergence of physiological plant ecology as a vibrant subdiscipline Laboratory innovation since the mid-twentieth century has powered advances in the study of plant adaptation, evolution, and ecosystem function. The phytotron, an integrated complex of controlled-environment greenhouse and laboratory spaces, invented by Frits W. Went in the 1950s, set off a worldwide laboratory movement and transformed the plant sciences. Sharon Kingsland explores this revolution through a comparative study of work in the United States, France, Australia, Israel, the USSR, and Hungary. These advances in botanical research energized physiological plant ecology. Case studies explore the development of phytotron spinoffs such as mobile laboratories, rhizotrons, and ecotrons. Scientific problems include the significance of plant emissions of volatile organic compounds, symbiosis between plants and soil fungi, and the discovery of new pathways for photosynthesis as an adaptation to hot, dry climates. The advancement of knowledge through synthesis is a running theme: linking disciplines, combining laboratory and field research, and moving across ecological scales from leaf to ecosystem. The book also charts the history of modern scientific responses to the emerging crisis of food insecurity in the era of global warming.

Author : Harmon R. Holcomb
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 466 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 1993-01-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0791412601

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Sociobiology, Sex, and Science by Harmon R. Holcomb Pdf

This book examines sociobiology’s validity and significance, using the sociobiological theory of the evolution of mating and parenting as an example. It identifies and discusses the array of factors that determine sociobiology’s effort to become a science, providing a rare, balanced account—more critical than that of its advocates and more constructive than that of its critics. It sees a role for sociobiology in changing the way we understand the goals of evolutionary biology, the proper way to evaluate emerging sciences, and the deep structure of scientific theories. The book’s premise is that evolutionary biology would not be complete if it did not explain evolutionarily significant social facts about nonhumans and humans. It proposes that explanations should be evaluated in terms of their basis in underlying theories, research programs, and conceptual frameworks.

Author : Robert F. Shedinger
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2019-06-28
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781532658334

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The Mystery of Evolutionary Mechanisms by Robert F. Shedinger Pdf

Is Darwinian evolution really the most successful scientific theory ever proposed—or even the best idea anyone has ever had, as Daniel Dennett once put it? The Mystery of Evolutionary Mechanisms provides a comprehensive critical reading of the literature of evolutionary biology from Darwin to Dobzhansky to Dawkins, revealing this popular account of evolution to be a grand narrative of Darwinian triumph that greatly overstates the empirical validity of modern evolutionary theory. The mechanisms driving the evolutionary process truly remain a mystery more than one hundred fifty years after Origin of Species, a fact that can free religion scholars to think in more creative ways about the positive contributions religious reflection might make to our understanding of life’s origin and diversity. The Mystery of Evolutionary Mechanisms calls for an embrace of mystery, understood not as an abdication of the scientific quest for truth but as a courageous and humble acknowledgment of the limits of human reason and an openness to a fundamentally religious orientation toward life.

Author : Gilbert Gottlieb
Publisher : Psychology Press
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2014-09-19
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781317778585

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Synthesizing Nature-nurture by Gilbert Gottlieb Pdf

This volume provides a primarily nontechnical summary of experimental and theoretical work conducted over the course of 35 years which resulted in a developmental framework capable of integrating causal influences at the genetic, neural, behavioral, and ecological levels of analysis. It describes novel solutions to the nature-nurture problem at both the empirical and theoretical levels. Following field observations, laboratory experiments led to the discovery of the nonobvious prenatal experiential basis of instinctive behavior in two species--ground-nesting mallard ducklings and hole-nesting wood ducklings. This work also describes the experiences that lead to the rigid canalization of behavioral development as well as the social and sensory experiences that favor the continuance of flexibility. The author also describes in detail a developmental psychobiological systems view that supports a behaviorally and psychologically mediated pathway to evolutionary change in humans and other species. Written in a way that is readable to even the nonspecialist, the text is accompanied by numerous photographs that illuminate and add personal meaning to the written words. Readers will be engaged by the emphasis on the human aspect of the scientific enterprise.

Author : Richard G. Delisle
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 474 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2021-02-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030655365

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Natural Selection by Richard G. Delisle Pdf

This book contests the general view that natural selection constitutes the explanatory core of evolutionary biology. It invites the reader to consider an alternative view which favors a more complete and multidimensional interpretation. It is common to present the 1930-1960 period as characterized by the rise of the Modern Synthesis, an event structured around two main explanatory commitments: (1) Gradual evolution is explained by small genetic changes (variations) oriented by natural selection, a process leading to adaptation; (2) Evolutionary trends and speciational events are macroevolutionary phenomena that can be accounted for solely in terms of the extension of processes and mechanisms occurring at the previous microevolutionary level. On this view, natural selection holds a central explanatory role in evolutionary theory - one that presumably reaches back to Charles Darwin's Origin of Species - a view also accompanied by the belief that the field of evolutionary biology is organized around a profound divide: theories relying on strong selective factors and those appealing only to weak ones. If one reads the new analyses presented in this volume by biologists, historians and philosophers, this divide seems to be collapsing at a rapid pace, opening an era dedicated to the search for a new paradigm for the development of evolutionary biology. Contrary to popular belief, scholars' position on natural selection is not in itself a significant discriminatory factor between most evolutionists. In fact, the intellectual space is quite limited, if not non-existent, between, on the one hand, "Darwinists", who play down the central role of natural selection in evolutionary explanations, and, on the other hand, "non-Darwinists", who use it in a list of other evolutionary mechanisms. The "mechanism-centered" approach to evolutionary biology is too incomplete to fully make sense of its development. In this book the labels created under the traditional historiography - "Darwinian Revolution", "Eclipse of Darwinism", "Modern Synthesis", "Post-Synthetic Developments" - are thus re-evaluated. This book will not only appeal to researchers working in evolutionary biology, but also to historians and philosophers."

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 660 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Military art and science
ISBN : OSU:32435065905671

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Professional Journal of the United States Army by Anonim Pdf