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EVOLUTION Neodarwinian Logic
The book will be developed from the contributions of the ISSEI workshop at Malta (see below) with additional contributions solicited, produced under the tentative book title: Neodarwinian logic. The
tentative set of paradigms that I propose to represent Neodarwinian
logic (subject to criticism and modification) may be summarized as
follows: 1.
Existence
of agents. 2.
Heredity. 3.
Variation
(and accumulation of mutations). 4.
Non-constancy
of species (corollary to #3). 5.
Cooperation
(emerges via variation and selection). 6.
Branching
evolution from a single unique origin
(corollary to #5). 7.
Hierarchical
organization and compartmentalization of hereditary base (emerges via
variation and selection). 8.
Evolution
has a direction, is gradual(?) and provides limited optimisation 9.
Selection
(survival of the fittest) in isolation (in isolated populations). The principal aim of the book is to present a generalization of the neodarwinian priciples beyond the field of genetic evolution. Relevant phenomena (from the field of sociology and the humanities, as well as non-genetic biological processes) are not primarely reduced to genetics, but analyzed in respect to formal (mathematical) properties. It furthermore seeks to provide an answer to the questions that recently have been raised by Cardinal Schönborn on behalf of the catholic church. It will present an uncompromising evaluation of theological and scientific arguments without claiming a final consensus. Thus the
book will include chapters grouped into three categories: Within the above list of contributions special consideration will be given to the following timely issues:
This list may be enlarged as further propositions come in. In detail the book includes all aspects of the original call for the Malta workshop presented below, but focuses specifically on the logic of neodarwinism, i.e. a set of paradigms. It will investigate modes related to neodarwinian logic rather than metaphors.Contributing papers discuss the application and limits of these paradigms in a variety of of disciplines (philosophy, economics, social sciences, liguistics immunology, brain research, informatics, poetry, the arts, ...), they present the evidences that support these paradigms in the field of life sciences (molecular in vitro models of evolution, paleontology, non-coding DNA, genetic regulation of morphogenesis, what's the problem about reverse translatases, tubulin assembly, ant foraging behavior, ...), they provide a comparison of different evolution models, they discuss the evolution of intelligence, they discuss the relation of science and religion, present theological arguments concerning evolution from the point of view of different denominations and creeds (modern textual criticism in exegetics, process-theology, feminist theology, comparative studies for Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, ...), they present the history of the evolution - creation struggle in the USA with emphasis on high school teaching, they present tangential information from other fields of science like parapsychology (mental manipulation of chance events, ...), and more. The presentations of the book should help scholars at the postgraduate level to understand the problems and language of other dispciplines in respect to the common theme of the book without having formal training in them. Thus the book should enable professionals to understand the state of the research in other fields and to communicate in a transdisciplinary manner across existing discouse boundaries. The editor believes there is both lack of theological understanding among scientists and lack of scientific understanding among theologians and philosophers. The book should bridge this gap. It is not primarily written for the lay person and does not intend to popularize the subject, yet without excluding anyone who enjoys to read a professional text. If
you are interested to contribute an article to this book, please
contact:
The first step to realize this project was the following workshop:
Call for Papers workshop:
The science and history of evolutionary theory In the United States, high (secondary) school education is virtually
compulsory. Teenage students are forced to learn and submit to
examination on a doctrine deemed sacrilegious by many Christian
fundamentalists. Consequently, teaching evolution is widely resented
and frequently resisted through efforts of democratically elected
officials. Recently, efforts to remove evolution from high school
curricula or delineate its scope have been rebuffed by the courts
without recognizing the legitimate concern of parents to supervise the
moral education of their children. Intelligent design remains an
academic research agenda. While it may be premature to expose
Secondary school students with unexplored ideas, it remains worthwhile
to academically examine such ideas. Rather than furthering the
scientific study of evolution, controversy has been an impediment. We
propose, therefore, to promote evolutionary studies by launching a
range of useful new debates: 1)
Trial and error are minimalistic requirements to bootstrap complexity,
and hence should also be the initial stages in the development of
intelligence. Hence regardless of whether we have understood
speciation in full, the structuralistic principle of Darwinism remains
applicable even if we engage intelligence. 2)
cultural evolution operates with higher complexities and possibly
different mechanisms that remain to be specified. 3)
By scientific standards Intelligent design postulates a deus-ex-machina
without thusfar providing mechanisms of interference with the genetic
apparatus and without explaining intelligence itself. 4)
How have art, intelligence, rituals and fetishism evolved: what are
their sources and what are the conditions for their development? 5)
Are science and religion complementary descriptions of the world, and
are their epistemologies compatible? The organizers invite papers in any of the above categories. Please
contact: martin.potschka@univie.ac.at or
sshostak@pitt.edu Deadline for submissions is: 15th April 2006. deadline extended to 15th May 2006 Your contributions will be published in the conference proceedings; manuscripts should not exceed 3000 words (approx. 10 pages). For information about the conference, registration, travel directions
etc. see: http://issei2006.haifa.ac.il
On Thursday 27th July evening: workshop dinner (details will be announced in the workshop afternoon session) 
CONFERENCE
paper presented at the slsa meeting:
Some general information on the subject of Evolution
The debate of evolution in the Roman Catholic Church: Pope John Paul II has called Evolution theory "more than a hypothesis". According to the judgment of the International Harald Tribune, Cardinal Schönborn denied that John Paul II had accepted the possibility of evolution. He certainly does not accept some of the implications of his message and there he gets assistence by physicist Herbert Pietschmann who claims that scientific theories always are mere hypothesis. What is truth, what is a hypothesis? (this epistemological quirl is one of the issues discussed in the article by Martin Potschka, other aspects are:. Is evolution theory complete? Is there intelligence in the universe? and how did intelligence evolve?)
Teaching Evolution in high schools:
0 Major Court Decisions against Teaching Creationism as Science", National Center for Science Education. Click here to read [http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/1464_10_major_court_decisions_again_2_15_2001.asp] Working Group on Teaching Evolution, National Academy of Sciences [1998] Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science, Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Creationism:
Brooke,
John Hedley, A secular religion: should evolutionism be viewed as a
modified descendant of Christianity?, a review of the book "The Evolution-Creation Struggle" by Michael Ruse, Nature
437 (2005) 815-816.
Rennie,
John, 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense, Scientific
American July 2002: 78-85. Johnson, Phillip E. [1991] Darwin on Trial, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press; 1993. Whitcomb,
John C. and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Morris, Henry M., and Gary E. Parker, What is Creations Science?, Revised and Expanded, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, Inc.; 1982. Morris,
Henry M., ed., Scientific Creationism, Prepared by the
Topics in evolution theory:
Potschka,
Martin, Evolutionstheorie. Die Wiegen der Menschlichkeit. Neue
Theorien über Anfang und Evolution der Menschheit, Volksstimme
27 (1994) 20.
Rice,
William R., Salt, George W., The evolution of reproductive isolation
as a correlated character under sympatric conditions - experimental
evidence, Evolution
44 (1990) 1140-1152.
Rice,
William R., Hostert Ellen E., Laboratory Experiments on speciation - what
we learned in 40 years, Evolution
47 (1993) 1637-1653. Stostak, Seth, SETI and Intelligent Design, http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_intelligentdesign_051201.html
Useful Links:
The American Institute of
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last update: 26. 4.07 |
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