Self-Organization as a New Paradigm in Evolutionary Biology PDF Download

Author: Anne Dambricourt Malassé
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031047834
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
The epistemological synthesis of the various theories of evolution, since the first formulation in 1802 with the transmission of the inherited characters by J.B. Lamarck, shows the need for an alternative synthesis to that of Princeton (1947). This new synthesis integrates the scientific models of self-organization developed during the second half of the 20th century based on the laws of physics, thermodynamics, and mathematics with the emergent evolutionary problematics such as self-organized memory. This book shows, how self-organization is integrated in modern evolutionary biology. It is divided in two parts: The first part pays attention to the modern observations in paleontology and biology, which include major theoreticians of the self-organization (d’Arcy Thompson, Henri Bergson, René Thom, Ilya Prigogine). The second part presents different emergent evolutionary models including the sciences of complexity, the non-linear dynamical systems, fractals, attractors, epigenesis, systemics, and mesology with different examples of the sciences of complexity and self-organization as observed in the human lineage, from both internal (embryogenesis-morphogenesis) and external (mesology) viewpoints.

Author: Stuart A. Kauffman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780197701751
Category : Evolution (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Stuart Kauffman here presents a new paradigm for evolutionary biology, one that extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. The book drives to the heart of the exciting debate on the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems. It focuses on the concept of self-organization: the spontaneous emergence of order that is widely observed throughout nature Kauffman argues that self-organization plays an important role in the Darwinian process of natural selection. Yet until now no systematic effort has been made to incorporate the concept of self-organization into evolutionary theory.

Author: Peter A. Corning
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026254640X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
A unique exploration of teleonomy—also known as “evolved purposiveness”—as a major influence in evolution by a broad range of specialists in biology and the philosophy of science. The evolved purposiveness of living systems, termed “teleonomy” by chronobiologist Colin Pittendrigh, has been both a major outcome and causal factor in the history of life on Earth. Many theorists have appreciated this over the years, going back to Lamarck and even Darwin in the nineteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the complex, dynamic process of evolution was simplified into the one-way, bottom-up, single gene-centered paradigm widely known as the modern synthesis. In Evolution “On Purpose,” edited by Peter A. Corning, Stuart A. Kauffman, Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, Richard I. Vane-Wright, and Addy Pross, some twenty theorists attempt to modify this reductive approach by exploring in depth the different ways in which living systems have themselves shaped the course of evolution. Evolution “On Purpose” puts forward a more inclusive theoretical synthesis that goes far beyond the underlying principles and assumptions of the modern synthesis to accommodate work since the 1950s in molecular genetics, developmental biology, epigenetic inheritance, genomics, multilevel selection, niche construction, physiology, behavior, biosemiotics, chemical reaction theory, and other fields. In the view of the authors, active biological processes are responsible for the direction and the rate of evolution. Essays in this collection grapple with topics from the two-way “read-write” genome to cognition and decision-making in plants to the niche-construction activities of many organisms to the self-making evolution of humankind. As this collection compellingly shows, and as bacterial geneticist James Shapiro emphasizes, “The capacity of living organisms to alter their own heredity is undeniable.”

Author: Alexander N. Christakis
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1607526921
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
We have all experienced the benefits of dialogue when we openly and thoughtfully confront issues. We have also experienced the frustration of interminable discussion that does not lead to progress. Co-Laboratories of Democracy enable large, diverse groups to dialogue and generate positive results. Many group processes engender enthusiasm and good feeling as people share their concerns and hopes with each other. Co-Laboratories go beyond this initial euphoria to: Discover root causes; Adopt consensual action plans; Develop teams dedicated to implementing those plans; and Generate lasting bonds of respect, trust, and cooperation.Co-Laboratories achieve these results by respecting the autonomy of all participants, and utilizing an array of consensus tools including discipline, technology and graphics that allow the stakeholders to control the discussion. These are explained in depth in a book authored by Alexander N. Christakis with Kenneth C. Bausch: Co-Laboratories of Democracy: How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom to Create the Future (Information Age, 2006).Co-Laboratories are a refinement of Interactive Management, a decision and design methodology developed over the past 30 years to deal with very complex situations involving diverse stakeholders. It has been successfully employed all over the world in situations of uncertainty and conflict. On Cyprus, for example, it has been used to bridge the divide between the Turkish and Greek factions on the island. It is currently being employed on that island to help Palestinian authorities organize their government.Co-Laboratories in one day can draw together a diverse group of people on an issue, elicit authentic feelings and respectful listening, generate agreed upon language, and identify leverage points for effective action. Participants will be able to generate a consensual action plan. Co-Laboratories generate real respect, understanding, and cooperation among participants and do it rapidly.

Author: Erich Jantsch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000301265
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
"The evolutionary vision" is a term coined by economist Kenneth E. Boulding to describe a unified view of evolution that encompasses all levels of reality, from the cosmic or physical through the biological, ecological, and sociobiological to the sociocultural. It focuses less on systems or any particular entity than on the processes through which they evolve. In this volume various approaches to the self-organization of matter and information are outlined by authors who are among the chief developers of this new paradigm. They focus on the general laws governing evolutionary dynamics across all levels of evolution, including the evolution of humans and human systems.

Author: Anne Dambricourt Malasse
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119887771
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
The future of the human posture is in the spotlight. The 200-year-old locomotion paradigm can no longer resist the advancement of knowledge, yet 2,500 years of thinking on the place of verticalized human anatomy and its reflexive consciousness in the natural history of life and the Earth, is more relevant than ever. This book retraces these reflections from pre-Socratic philosophers, focusing on the link between verticality and the most complex and consciously reflexive nervous system on the top rung of the ladder of living beings. The origin of animated forms, or animals, was considered metaphysical until the 19th century but reflection on their inception, from fertilization, paved the way for mathematics of infinitesimal geometry and dynamics. The simian filiation was inconceivable until Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck bridged the gap in 1802 with the locomotion postulate to explain the transition from quadrupedal to bipedal posture, sustained by the hypothesis of inheritance of acquired characteristics. This doctrine was overturned in 1987 by the discovery of the embryonic origins of the straightening – specific dynamics linked to neurogenesis – confirming the natural place of human verticality and nervous system complexity with its psychomotor and cognitive consequences. Sapiens find themselves at the physical limit of the straightening while mechanisms of gametogenesis have never ceased in making neurogenesis exponentially more complex. Is the future exclusively terrestrial or does intrauterine hominization open up new perspectives for space exploration? Posturologists, occlusodontics, osteopaths, cognisciences – all anthropological sciences exposed to human verticality are concerned with this discovery, which allows Sapiens to face their natural destiny.

Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004353852
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 734

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Book Description
The Global Studies Directory identifies people and institutions who have been key in the field of Global Studies or made an impact on the formation of a global world.

Author: Rob Dekkers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1848824688
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Dispersed Manufacturing Networks provides new perspectives of dispersed manufacturing systems from three points of view. The first is that offered by complex systems theory, particularly on how agents in these industrial networks interact and how that provides possibility for coordination. The book also elaborates on issues of coordination and planning, as well as examining new solutions and challenges for logistics problems and collaboration in engineering networks within the internationalisation perspective. The impact of globalization is discussed for both managerial decision-making and operational performance of supply chains. A strong emphasis is placed on the need for continuous decision-making with recognition of the fact that networks of loosely connected agents require different approaches. Both researchers and professionals will welcome Dispersed Manufacturing Networks. It is an informative guide for those researching and working across a range of fields.

Author: Peter M. Allen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135301727
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
A clear methodological and philosophical introduction to complexity theory as applied to urban and regional systems is given, together with a detailed series of modelling case studies compiled over the last couple of decades. Based on the new complex systems thinking, mathematical models are developed which attempt to simulate the evolution of towns, cities, and regions and the complicated co-evolutionary interaction there is both between and within them. The aim of these models is to help policy analysis and decision-making in urban and regional planning, energy policy, transport policy, and many other areas of service provision, infrastructure planning, and investment that are necessary for a successful society.

Author: Steven Best
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136368523
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
This compelling book explores the challenges to theory, politics, and human identity that we face on the threshold of the third millennium. It follows on the successor of Best and Kellner's two previous books, Postmodern Theory, acclaimed as the best critical introduction to the field - and The Postmodern Turn, which provides a powerful mapping of postmodern developments developments in the arts, politics, science, and theory. In The Postmodern Adventure, Best and Kellner analyze a broad array of literary, cultural, and political phenomena from fiction, film, science, and the Internet, to globalization and the rise of a transnational image culture.