Evolutionary Systems

G. Vijver

ISBN 10: 9048151031 / ISBN 13: 9789048151035

Published by Springer Netherlands, Springer Dez 2010, 2010

About this Item

This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -The three well known revolutions of the past centuries - the Copernican, the Darwinian and the Freudian - each in their own way had a deflating and mechanizing effect on the position of humans in nature. They opened up a richness of disillusion: earth acquired a more modest place in the universe, the human body and mind became products of a long material evolutionary history, and human reason, instead of being the central, immaterial, locus of understanding, was admitted into the theater of discourse only as a materialized and frequently out-of-control actor. Is there something objectionable to this picture Formulated as such, probably not. Why should we resist the idea that we are in certain ways, and to some degree, physically, biologically or psychically determined Why refuse to acknowledge the fact that we are materially situated in an ever evolving world Why deny that the ways of inscription (traces of past events and processes) are co-determinative of further 'evolutionary pathways' Why minimize the idea that each intervention, of each natural being, is temporally and materially situated, and has, as such, the inevitable consequence of changing the world The point is, however, that there are many, more or less radically different, ways to consider the 'mechanization' of man and nature. There are, in particular, many ways to get the message of 'material and evolutionary determination', as well as many levels at which this determination can be thought of as relevant or irrelevant.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 456 pp. Englisch.

Seller Inventory # 9789048151035

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Evolutionary Systems
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Springer Dez 2010
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9048151031
• ISBN 13: 9789048151035
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 235W x 155H x 25D millimeters 235 millimeters width by 155 millimeters height by 25 millimeters depth
• Weight: 686 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The three well known revolutions of the past centuries - the Copernican, the Darwinian and the Freudian - each in their own way had a deflating and mechanizing effect on the position of humans in nature. They opened up a richness of disillusion: earth acquired a more modest place in the universe, the human body and mind became products of a long material evolutionary history, and human reason, instead of being the central, immaterial, locus of understanding, was admitted into the theater of discourse only as a materialized and frequently out-of-control actor. Is there something objectionable to this picture? Formulated as such, probably not. Why should we resist the idea that we are in certain ways, and to some degree, physically, biologically or psychically determined? Why refuse to acknowledge the fact that we are materially situated in an ever evolving world? Why deny that the ways of inscription (traces of past events and processes) are co-determinative of further "evolutionary pathways"? Why minimize the idea that each intervention, of each natural being, is temporally and materially situated, and has, as such, the inevitable consequence of changing the world? The point is, however, that there are many, more or less radically different, ways to consider the "mechanization" of man and nature. There are, in particular, many ways to get the message of "material and evolutionary determination", as well as many levels at which this determination can be thought of as relevant or irrelevant.

Review

`...the book is a statement of exciting open problems at the interface of self-organization and selection, and of how multidisciplinary perspectives can help refine evolutionary theory. It should prove valuable to future work on the subject.'
The Quarterly Review of Biology, 76:3(2001)