Understanding the evolutionary role of environmentally induced phenotypic variation (i.e., plasticity) is an important issue in developmental evolution. A major physiological response to environmental change is cellular stress, which is counteracted by generic stress reactions detoxifying the cell. A model, stress‐induced evolutionary innovation (SIEI), whereby ancestral stress reactions and their corresponding pathways can be transformed into novel structural components of body plans, such as new cell types, is described. Previous findings suggest that the cell differentiation cascade of a cell type (...) critical to pregnancy in humans, the decidual stromal cell, evolved from a cellular stress reaction. It is hypothesized that the stress reaction in these cells was elicited ancestrally via inflammation caused by embryo attachment. The present study proposes that SIEI is a distinct form of plasticity‐based evolutionary change leading to the origin of novel structures rather than adaptive transformation of pre‐existing characters. (shrink)

Our society is in the middle of the AI revolution. We discuss several applications of AI, in particular medical causality, where deep-learning neural networks screen through big data bases, extracting associations between a patient’s condition and possible causes. While beneficial in medicine, several questionable AI trading strategies have emerged in finance. Though advantages in many aspects of our lives, serious threats of AI exist. We suggest several regulatory measures to reduce these threats. We further discuss whether ‘full AI robots’ should (...) be programmed with a virtual consciousness and conscience. While this would reduce AI threats via motivational control, other threats such as the desire for AI—human socioeconomic equality could prove detrimental. (shrink)

" Because characters and the conception of characters are central to all studies of evolution, and because evolution is the central organizing principle of biology, this book will appeal to a wide cross-section of biologists.

Both the capability and the recognition approach are influential and substantial theories in social philosophy. In this contribution, we outline their main assumptions in their assessment of poverty. The two approaches are set in relation to each other, focusing mainly on (a) their moral evaluation of poverty, (b) issues of justification of their central normative claims, and (c) the role that is attributed to subjective experiences, feelings and emotions in these theories. This comparison reveals that in spite of significant differences, (...) both lead to the claim that poverty can never be adequately assessed without putting it into the context of a comprehensive ethical theory about the nature and function of societies. Drawing on this result, we conclude that the critical function of social philosophy plays an irreducible role in the study and understanding of poverty. (shrink)

The book focuses on the modern understanding of human life-forms as constructs that followed an evolutionary history. The author thus finds science confronted with two questions: firstly, how the transgression of the virtual threshold between natural and cultural history was possible, secondly, how the socio-cultural constructs were able to develop in the course of history the way they did. The discussion concentrates on the problem of determining a processual logic in the development of societal structures as well as in the (...) development of cognition. The focus of attention is the historico-genetic reconstruction of cognition. The book was originally published in German as Historisch-genetische Theorie der Kultur (Weilerswist 2000: Velbrück). (shrink)

The way in which we produce and consume energy has profound implications for our societies. How we configure our energy systems determines not only our chances of successfully dealing with climate change but also, how benefits and burdens of these systems are distributed. In this paper, we set out to map the literature on conflicts related to the energy system in Sweden using a framework of energy justice. The purpose of this exercise is twofold: first, to identify and understand energy (...) conflicts in Sweden through the research that is published; and second, to identify gaps in the literature on energy justice in Sweden. This systematic review builds upon 40 scholarly articles focusing on energy conflicts in Sweden. All articles were written in the time period from January 2010 to January 2021. All articles were published in English in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The papers were analysed using a framework for energy justice that focused on the elements of distributional and procedural justice and recognition justice. The findings of the review suggest that there has been little explicit focus on energy justice in the literature on Sweden's energy system. Issues of distributional justice are most raised and procedural and recognition justice are often conflated in research. While conflicts over hydropower and nuclear have dominated in the past, wind energy in Sami territory is most problematised in the reviewed literature. The understanding of justice in the Swedish energy system is currently missing two elements: a rigorous handling of ecologically unequal exchange and restorative justice. (shrink)

The significance and development of Mannheim's sociology Ancient data such as the Code of Hammurabi, the Old Testament, the Confucian Classics, ...

Two welcome extensions of evolutionary thinking have come to prominence over the last thirty years: the so-called ’extended evolutionary synthesis’ (EES) and debate about biological kinds and individuals. These two agendas have, however, remained orthogonal to one another. The EES has mostly restricted itself to widening the explanations of adaptation offered by the preceding ’modern evolutionary synthesis’ by including additional mechanisms of inheritance and variation; while discussion of biological kinds has turned toward philosophical questions of essential vs. contingent properties of (...) life forms and realist vs. epistemological approaches to categorization and classification. Here we attempt to broaden the explanatory scope of evolutionary theory by linking these two agendas. We expand on the mechanistic orientation of the EES, using new understandings of networked systems of components in order to engage the distinct intellectual challenge of the origination of “historical kinds”. With this phrase we designate a subset of natural kinds that acquires, through evolutionary processes, a quasi-independent lineage-history. Such kinds emerge in both biology and culture, and we enlarge the limited number of historical kinds that have thus far been recognized in evolutionary biology in a series of paradigmatic exemplars, from genes and cell types to rituals and music. For each exemplar we discern specific mechanisms by which it arose and persists; comparing these, we suggest a general unity in the ways in which diverse historical kinds originate. (shrink)

mit Beitr. v. Günter C. Behrmann. hrsg. v. Günter Saße. ; Volltext // Exemplar mit der Signatur: München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek -- Z 65.262-1447.

Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education is underdeveloped. To add to our knowledge, we have systematically compared the outcomes of two case approaches to an undergraduate course on the ethics of technology: a detached approach using real-life cases and a challenge-based learning approach with students and stakeholders acting as co-creators. We first developed a practical typology of case-study approaches and subsequently tested an evaluation method to assess the students’ learning experiences and outcomes (...) and staff interpretations and operationalizations, seeking to answer three questions: Do students in the CBL approach report higher basic needs, motivation and competence development compared to their peers in the detached approach? What is the relationship between student-perceived co-creation and their basic needs, motivation and competence development? And what are the implications of CBL/CC for engineering-ethics teaching and learning? Our mixed methods analysis favored CBL as it best supported teaching and research goals while satisfying the students’ basic needs and promoting intrinsic motivation and communication competences. Competence progress in other areas did not differ between approaches, and motivation in terms of identified regulation was lower for CBL, with staff perceiving a higher workload. We propose that our case typology model is useful and that as a method to engage students as co-creators, CBL certainly merits further development and evaluation, as does our effectiveness analysis for engineering ethics instruction in general and for case-study approaches in particular. (shrink)

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. We must find new and innovative ways of conceptualizing transboundary energy issues, of embedding concerns of ethics or justice into energy policy, and of operationalizing response to them. This book stems from the emergent gap; the need for comparative approaches to energy justice, and for those that consider ethical traditions that go beyond the classical Western approach. This edited volume unites the fields of energy justice and comparative philosophy to (...) provide an overarching global perspective and approach to applying energy ethics. We contribute to this purpose in four sections: setting the scene, practice, applying theory to practice, and theoretical approaches. Through the chapters featured in the volume, we position the book as one that contributes to energy justice scholarship across borders of nations, borders of ways of thinking and borders of disciplines. The outcome will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students studying energy justice, ethics and environment, as well as energy scholars, policy makers, and energy analysts. (shrink)

Variegated phenotypes often result from chromosomal rearrangements that place euchromatic genes next to heterochromatin. In such rearrangements, the condensed structure of heterochromatin can spread into euchromatic regions, which then assume the morphology of heterochromatin and become transcriptionally inactive. In position‐effect variegation (PEV) therefore, gene inactivation results from a change in chromatin structure. PEV has been intensively investigated in the fruitfly Drosophila, where the phenomenon allows a genetic dissection of chromatin components. Consequently, many genes have been identified which, when mutated, act (...) as dominant modifiers (suppressors or enhancers) of PEV. Data available already demonstrate that genetic, molecular and developmental analysis of these genes provides an avenue to the identification of regulatory and structural chromatin components, and hence to fundamental aspects of chromosome structure and function. (shrink)

This paper explores the intimate connection between love and hope. Building on insights from Pamela Sue Anderson’s writings on vulnerable love, it focuses on the often-overlooked insight that love is saturated with risks, including the risk of rejection. Even though love intensifies vulnerabilities, it remains creative, albeit in a dangerous way. Hope addresses the problems love poses by temporizing them, but hope is not without risks and ambiguities itself. The distinction between “hope for” and “hope in” someone, a move which (...) is crucial for a Christian understanding of love and hope, can help to address this insufficiency. (shrink)

Recent investigations with non‐model species and whole‐genome approaches have challenged several paradigms in animal epigenetics. They revealed that epigenetic variation in populations is not the mere consequence of genetic variation, but is a semi‐independent or independent source of phenotypic variation, depending on mode of reproduction. DNA methylation is not positively correlated with genome size and phylogenetic position as earlier believed, but has evolved differently between and within higher taxa. Epigenetic marks are usually not completely erased in the zygote and germ (...) cells as generalized from mouse, but often persist and can be transgenerationally inherited, making them evolutionarily relevant. Gene body methylation and promoter methylation are similar in vertebrates and invertebrates with well methylated genomes but transposon silencing through methylation is variable. The new data also suggest that animals use epigenetic mechanisms to cope with rapid environmental changes and to adapt to new environments. The main benefiters are asexual populations, invaders, sessile taxa and long‐lived species. (shrink)

Das Buch spielt mit einem neuen, ganzheitlichen Vorstellungsbild des Menschen, der aus drei Einheiten zusammengesetzt gedacht wird: das analytische Denken residiert in einer computer¿lichen linken Gehirnh¿te, die kreative Intuition sitzt wie ein naturbelassenes neuronales Netzwerk in der rechten. Der Mensch denkt, wohin ihn das dritte System lenkt: Ein hyperschneller Anzeichen-Identifizierer alarmiert etwa bei gef¿lichen Ereignissen die Aufmerksamkeit, unbewusst, ohne Denken. Bis auf ein paar Zeilen mathematischer Erkl¿ng ist dieses Buch fulminante Philosophie. Wichtige Ansichten dieser Welt werden gedreht und bleiben zum (...) Teil auf dem Kopf stehen. Die Lehren von Platon, Aristoteles, Konfuzius, Epikur, Freud & Co. erscheinen als notwendige Philosophien verschiedener Gehirnnutzungsvarianten. Das Buch ist eine scharfsinnig-bissig-humorvolle und sehr pers¿nliche Auseinandersetzung mit dem, was wir "Lebenssinn" nennen. (shrink)

A macroscopic realization of the peculiar virtual particles is presented. The classical Helmholtz and the Schrödinger equations are differential equations of the same mathematical structure. The solutions with an imaginary wave number are called evanescent modes in the case of elastic and electromagnetic fields. In the case of non-relativistic quantum mechanical fields they are called tunneling solutions. The imaginary wave numbers point to strange consequences: The waves are non-local, they are not observable, and they are described as virtual particles. During (...) the last two decades QED calculations of the solutions with an imaginary wave number have been experimentally confirmed for phonons, photons, and electrons. The experimental proofs of the predictions of non-relativistic quantum mechanics and the Wigner phase time approach for the elastic, electromagnetic and Schrödinger fields will be presented in this article. The results are zero time in the barrier and an interaction time (i.e. a phase shift) at the barrier interfaces. The measured tunneling time scales approximately inversely with the particle energy. Actually, the tunneling time is given only by the barrier boundary interaction time, as zero time is spent inside a barrier. (shrink)

This volume, Futurism and the Technological Imagination, results from a conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas in Helsinki.

M'illumino/d'immenso - I'm lit/with immensity is Geoffrey Brock's translation of Giuseppe Ungaretti's poem Mattina. In the poem's minimalism, Ungaretti points to the maximal: the richness of poetry's expressive possibilities and the power of thinking in literature. This book addresses the fascination of readers to transcend the boundaries of their own in fiction, and literature's capacity, according to Kant, even to evoke, with the help of the development of aesthetic ideas, representations that exceed what is empirically and conceptually graspable - in (...) case studies about myths of creativity, images of death and the beyond after the 'death of God', of the soul, of melancholy as the dark ground of genius, of metamorphoses of both evil and good, of ecstasy, of the economy of self-sacrifice, of the art of resistance, and, among others, about figurations of biography and the portrait as approaches to singularity, what is particular and cannot be fully subsumed to any universality. (shrink)

Las depresiones y los estados depresivos varían de una persona a otra. Si se quiere trabajar para mejorar la situación de las víctimas de estos males, sería indicado saber en qué se distinguen los diferentes fenómenos y dónde se encuentra la causa. Pues las depresiones a menudo cumplen una función que suele aparecer camuflada./////Depression and depressive moods are varying from one person to another one. When working to alleviate the situation of the victims of these complaints it is advisable to (...) distinguish between different phenomena and to find the fundamental cause. Because depressions many times have a veiled function for the person in question. (shrink)