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  1. The logic of animal intergroup conflict: A review.Hannes Rusch & Sergey Gavrilets - forthcoming - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
    We review the literature on various approaches to modeling animal intergroup conflict behavior in theoretical biology, highlight the intricacies emerging in the process of adding due biological realism to such models, and point out recent empirical findings that can inspire future theorizing.
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  2. Species, Variety, Race: Vocabularies of Difference from Buffon to Kant.Jennifer Mensch - 2024 - Dianoia: Rivista di filosofia 39 (3):156-179.
    Eighteenth-century German writers with broad interests in natural history, and in particular, in the kind of ethnographic reports typically included in travel and expedition narratives, had to be able to access and read the original reports or they had to work with translations. The translators of these reports were, moreover, typically forced more than usual into the role of interpreter. This was especially the case when it came to accounts wherein vocabulary did not exist or was at least not settled, (...)
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  3. The realist and selectionist explanations for the success of science.Seungbae Park - 2022 - Synthese 200 (3):1-12.
    According to realists, theories are successful because they are true, but according to selectionists, theories are successful because they have gone through a rigorous selection process. Wray claims that the realist and selectionist explanations are rivals to each other. Lee objects that they are instead complementary to each other. In my view, Lee’s objection presupposes that the realist explanation is true, and thus it begs the question against selectionists. By contrast, the selectionist explanation invokes a scientific theory, and thus it (...)
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  4. The arrival of the smartest: In favour of a pluralistic account of the evolution of cognition.Giorgio Airoldi - 2021 - Aufklärung 8.
    The great advances of the last decades both in cognitive theories and in evolutionary biology have not yet fully merged. Most evolutionary hypotheses around the mind still rely on classical cognitivism, while most theories of cognition still look for adaptive explanations. We believe that the merging of novel cognitive theories into a pluralistic account can greatly improve our understanding of both what cognition is and how it evolved.
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  5. Reevaluating the grandmother hypothesis.Aja Watkins - 2021 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43 (3):1-29.
    Menopause is an evolutionary mystery: how could living longer with no capacity to reproduce possibly be advantageous? Several explanations have been offered for why female humans, unlike our closest primate relatives, have such an extensive post-reproductive lifespan. Proponents of the so-called “grandmother hypothesis” suggest that older women are able to increase their fitness by helping to care for their grandchildren as allomothers. This paper first distinguishes the grandmother hypothesis from several other hypotheses that attempt to explain menopause, and then develops (...)
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  6. Functions and Functioning in Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic and in Ecology.Roberta L. Millstein - 2020 - Philosophy of Science 87 (5):1107-1118.
    I examine the use of the term function in Aldo Leopold’s land ethic, invoked as (1) the healthy functioning of the land community, which is dependent on (2) the maintenance of the characteristic functions of populations that are parts of the land community. The latter can be understood as referring to interactions between species that are the products of coevolution (such as parasite-host, predator-prey) and, thus, in terms of the “selected effect” account of function. The performance of these functions under (...)
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  7. Anthropocene: The philosophy of Biotechnology.Valentin Cheshko, Glazko Valery & Ivanitskaya Lida - 2018 - Moscow, Russia: Kurs INFRA-M.
    The theory of evolution of complex, including the humans system and algorithm for its constructing are a synthesis of evolutionary epistemology, philosophical anthropology and concrete scientific empirical basis in modern science,. In other words, natural philosophy is regaining the status bar element theoretical science in the era of technology-driven evolution. The co-evolutionary concept of 3-modal stable evolutionary strategy of Homo sapiens is developed. The concept based on the principle of evolutionary complementarity of anthropogenesis: value of evolutionary risk and evolutionary path (...)
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  8. Kamikazes and cultural evolution.Sean Allen-Hermanson - 2017 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Biological and Biomedical Sciences 61:11-19.
    Is cultural evolution needed to explain altruistic selfsacrifice? Some contend that cultural traits (e.g. beliefs, behaviors, and for some “memes”) replicate according to selection processes that have “floated free” from biology. One test case is the example of suicide kamikaze attacks in wartime Japan. Standard biological mechanisms—such as reciprocal altruism and kin selection—might not seem to apply here: The suicide pilots did not act on the expectation that others would reciprocate, and they were supposedly sacrificing themselves for country and emperor, (...)
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  9. How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism. [REVIEW]Anton Killin - 2017 - Philosophical Quarterly 68 (272):635-638.
    How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism. Edited By Smith David Livingstone.
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  10. Evolving to Generalize: Trading Precision for Speed.Cailin O’Connor - 2017 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68 (2).
    Biologists and philosophers of biology have argued that learning rules that do not lead organisms to play evolutionarily stable strategies (ESSes) in games will not be stable and thus not evolutionarily successful. This claim, however, stands at odds with the fact that learning generalization---a behavior that cannot lead to ESSes when modeled in games---is observed throughout the animal kingdom. In this paper, I use learning generalization to illustrate how previous analyses of the evolution of learning have gone wrong. It has (...)
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  11. (1 other version)What Makes People Go to War? Defensive Intentions Motivate Retaliatory and Preemptive Intergroup Aggression.Robert Böhm, Hannes Rusch & Özgür Gürerk - 2016 - Evolution and Human Behavior 37 (1):29-34.
    Although humans qualify as one of the most cooperative animal species, the scale of violent intergroup conflict among them is unparalleled. Explanations of the underlying motivations to participate in an intergroup conflict, however, remain unsatisfactory. While previous research shows that intergroup conflict increases individually costly behavior to the benefit of the in-group, it has failed to identify robust triggers of aggressive behavior directed at out-groups. Here, we present a controlled laboratory experiment which demonstrates that such aggression can be provoked systematically (...)
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  12. Propositional Content in Signalling Systems.Jonathan Birch - 2014 - Philosophical Studies 171 (3):493-512.
    Skyrms, building on the work of Dretske, has recently developed a novel information-theoretic account of propositional content in simple signalling systems. Information-theoretic accounts of content traditionally struggle to accommodate the possibility of misrepresentation, and I show that Skyrms’s account is no exception. I proceed to argue, however, that a modified version of Skyrms’s account can overcome this problem. On my proposed account, the propositional content of a signal is determined not by the information that it actually carries, but by the (...)
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  13. Evolving Perceptual Categories.Cailin O’Connor - 2014 - Philosophy of Science 81 (5):110-121.
    This article uses sim-max games to model perceptual categorization with the goal of answering the following question: To what degree should we expect the perceptual categories of biological actors to track properties of the world around them? I argue that an analysis of these games suggests that the relationship between real-world structure and evolved perceptual categories is mediated by successful action in the sense that organisms evolve to categorize together states of nature for which similar actions lead to similar results. (...)
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  14. Runaway Memes.Brendan Shea - 2014 - In Nicolas Michaud & Jessica Watkins (eds.), Jurassic Park and Philosophy: The Truth is Terrifying. Open Court. pp. 29-39.
    Charles Darwin famously argued that that life on earth was not the product of intelligent design, and that it instead had arisen through the entirely natural of process of evolution via natural selection. Darwin’s theory of evolution (together with Mendel’s theory of genetics) now forms the foundation of all the biological sciences. Jurassic Park, however, raises an interesting question: just how does Darwin’s theory apply to lifeforms that are the products of explicit, intelligent design? In this essay, I examine cluster (...)
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  15. Evolutionary Explanations of Temporal Experience.Heather Dyke & James Maclaurin - 2013 - In Adrian Bardon & Heather Dyke (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Time. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 521-535.
    A common approach in the Philosophy of Time, particularly in enquiry into the metaphysical nature of time, has been to examine various aspects of the nature of human temporal experience, and ask what, if anything, can be discerned from this about the nature of time itself. Many human traits have explanations that reside in facts about our evolutionary history. We ask whether features of human temporal experience might admit of such evolutionary explanations. We then consider the implications of any proposed (...)
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  16. Subversive Explanations.Charles Pigden - 2013 - In Gregory W. Dawes & James Maclaurin (eds.), A new science of religion. New York: Routledge. pp. 147-161..
    Can an explanation of a set of beliefs cast doubt on the things believed? In particular, can an evolutionary explanation of religious beliefs call the contents of those beliefs into question? Yes - under certain circumstances. I distinguish between natural histories of beliefs and genealogies. A natural history of a set of beliefs is an explanation that puts them down to naturalistic causes. (I try to give an account of natural explanations which favors a certain kind of ‘methodological atheism’ without (...)
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  17. Evolutionary Aesthetics: an Introduction to Key Concepts and Current Issues.Hannes Rusch & Eckart Voland - 2013 - Aisthesis: Pratiche, Linguaggi E Saperi Dell’Estetico 6 (2):113-133.
    In this article we try to give a philosophically reflected introductory overview of the current theoretical developments in the field of evolutionary aesthetics. Our aim is not completeness. Rather, we try to depict some of the central assumptions and explanatory tools frequently used in evolutionary accounts of human aesthetical preferences and address a number of currently debated, open research questions.
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  18. Inheritance Systems.Ehud Lamm - 2012 - The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition).
    Organisms inherit various kinds of developmental information and cues from their parents. The study of inheritance systems is aimed at identifying and classifying the various mechanisms and processes of heredity, the types of hereditary information that is passed on by each, the functional interaction between the different systems, and the evolutionary consequences of these properties. We present the discussion of inheritance systems in the context of several debates. First, between proponents of monism about heredity (gene-centric views), holism about heredity (Developmental (...)
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  19. Intervention and Protection in African Crisis Situations: Evolution and Ethical Challenges.Mireille Affa'A. Mindzie - 2010 - Criminal Justice Ethics 29 (2):174-193.
    In a world where civilians, mostly women and children, remain adversely affected by armed conflict and millions of human beings are at the mercy of state repression, insurgencies, and violence, hum...
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  20. Naked Love: The Evolution of Human Hairlessness.James Giles - 2010 - Biological Theory 5 (4):326-336.
    All primates except human beings have thick coats of body hair. This suggests the primate ancestors of human beings likewise had such body hair and that, for some evolutionary reason, lost their body hair. Various theories have been put forward but none is fully adequate. This article presents the “naked love theory.” This theory locates the origin of human hairlessness in the ancestral mother—infant relationship. In this view, hairlessness is ultimately the adaptive consequence of bipedalism. Because of bipedalism, ancestral infants (...)
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  21. Understanding humans: serendipity and anthropology‖.Richard Leakey - 2010 - In Mark de Rond & Iain Morley (eds.), Serendipity: fortune and the prepared mind. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 22--27.
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  22. The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans?Thomas Suddendorf & Michael C. Corballis - 2007 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 30 (3):299-313.
    In a dynamic world, mechanisms allowing prediction of future situations can provide a selective advantage. We suggest that memory systems differ in the degree of flexibility they offer for anticipatory behavior and put forward a corresponding taxonomy of prospection. The adaptive advantage of any memory system can only lie in what it contributes for future survival. The most flexible is episodic memory, which we suggest is part of a more general faculty of mental time travel that allows us not only (...)
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  23. Genes for susceptibility to mental disorder are not mental disorder: Clarifying the target of evolutionary analysis and the role of the environment.Nicholas B. Allen & Paul B. T. Badcock - 2006 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (4):405-406.
    In this commentary, we critique the appropriate behavioural features for evolutionary genetic analysis, the role of the environment, and the viability of a general evolutionary genetic model for all common mental disorders. In light of these issues, we suggest that the authors may have prematurely discounted the role of some of the mechanisms they review, particularly balancing selection. (Published Online November 9 2006).
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  24. Species Counterpoint: Darwin and the Evolution of Forms.Randall Everett Allsup - 2006 - Philosophy of Music Education Review 14 (2):159-174.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Species Counterpoint:Darwin and the Evolution of FormsRandall Everett AllsupMy intention is to tell of bodies changed to different forms; the gods, who made the changes, will help me—or so I hope—with a poem that runs from the World's beginning to our own days.1I.A recent article in a progressive monthly magazine asked by way of a thesis, "Whose music is the blues?" Under the title, the tag line read, "2003 (...)
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  25. Sometimes an Orgasm is Just an Orgasm.Erika Lorraine Milam, Gillian R. Brown, Stefan Linquist, Steve Fuller & Elisabeth A. Lloyd - 2006 - Metascience 15 (3):399-435.
    I should like to offer my greatest thanks to Paul Griffiths for providing the opportunity for this exchange, and to commentators Gillian Brown, Steven Fuller, Stefan Linquist, and Erika Milam for their generous and thought-provoking comments. I shall do my best in this space to respond to some of their concerns.
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  26. Mutationism and the Dual Causation of Evolutionary Change.Arlin Stoltzfus - 2006 - Evolution and Development 8 (3):304-317.
    The rediscovery of Mendel's laws a century ago launched the science that William Bateson called "genetics," and led to a new view of evolution combining selection, particulate inheritance, and the newly characterized phenomenon of "mutation." This "mutationist" view clashed with the earlier view of Darwin, and the later "Modern Synthesis," by allowing discontinuity, and by recognizing mutation (or more properly, mutation-and-altered-development) as a source of creativity, direction, and initiative. By the mid-20th century, the opposing Modern Synthesis view was a prevailing (...)
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  27. Strukturelle Analogien bei biotischer und soziokultureller Evolution.Bertold Schweitzer & Klaus Gilgenmann - 2005 - Erwägen Wissen Ethik 16 (3):421–424.
    The article by B. Stephan (this issue) describes characteristics and stages of change of sociobiological and socio-cultural units. However, neither analogy nor evolutionary and developmental concept are sufficiently precise. In addition, Stephan pays no attention to structural analogies between biotic and cultural change, and therefore comes to the misguided assessment that socio-cultural change is to be construed as a developmental rather than an evolutionary process.
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  28. Evolutionary explanations of distributive justice.J. McKenzie Alexander - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (3):490-516.
    Evolutionary game theoretic accounts of justice attempt to explain our willingness to follow certain principles of justice by appealing to robustness properties possessed by those principles. Skyrms (1996) offers one sketch of how such an account might go for divide-the-dollar, the simplest version of the Nash bargaining game, using the replicator dynamics of Taylor and Jonker (1978). In a recent article, D'Arms et al. (1998) criticize his account and describe a model which, they allege, undermines his theory. I sketch a (...)
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  29. The evolution of rational demons.Colin Allen - 2000 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23 (5):742-742.
    If fast and frugal heuristics are as good as they seem to be, who needs logic and probability theory? Fast and frugal heuristics depend for their success on reliable structure in the environment. In passive environments, there is relatively little change in structure as a consequence of individual choices. But in social interactions with competing agents, the environment may be structured by agents capable of exploiting logical and probabilistic weaknesses in competitors' heuristics. Aspirations toward the ideal of a demon reasoner (...)
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  30. Operators, the Lego-bricks of nature: Evolutionary transitions from fermions to neural networks.Gerard A. J. M. Jagers Op Akkerhuis & Nico van Straalen - 1999 - World Futures 53 (4):329-345.
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  31. Objective colours and evolutionary value: A reply to Dedrick.Miri Albahari - 1999 - Dialogue 38 (1):99-108.
    RÉSUMÉ: Dans «Objectivism and the Evolutionary Value of Colour Vision», Don Dedrick suggère qu'une conception raffinée de la valeur adaptative en matière de vision des couleurs conduit à une explication non objectiviste de la couleur. Le raffinement, en l'occurrence, consiste à prendre en considération le rôle que jouent les processus perceptuels internes, contraints par les exigences de l'adaptation, dans la répartition des couleurs selon les catégories familières de rouge, violet, bleu, etc. L'objectivisme, par contraste, est présenté par Dedrick comme la (...)
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  32. Philosophy and the Origin and Evolution of the Universe.Evandro Agazzi & Alberto Cordero (eds.) - 1991 - Kluwer Academic Publishers.
    Modern cosmology, though a confluence of relativity theory and elementary particle physics, and with the help of very sophisticated mathematical models, tries to encompass the Universe as a whole, and to propose theories regarding its origin and evolution. But this cannot work without the evolution of several philosophical issues, concerning the epistemological status of this enterprise, its implicit or explicit extra-scientific presuppositions, as well as the real sense and interpretation of the theories and principles involved. This book provides a survey (...)
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  33. Behavior, body types and the irreversibility of evolution.Francisco Aboitiz - 1990 - Acta Biotheoretica 38 (2):91-101.
    A functional approach to evolutionary morphology is emphasized in this paper. This perspective differs from the current structuralist trend, which emphasizes the constraining role of developmental paths. In addition, the present approach agrees with the adaptationist paradigm. It is further argued that three types of phenomena are better understood in this light: i.- the existence of evolutionary trends, ii.- the maintenance of certain structural features within a given taxon, and iii.- the irreversibility of evolution.
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  34. Affect and aesthetics in human evolution.Alexander Alland - 1989 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 47 (1):1-14.
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  35. Evolution and Social Life. Tim Ingold.Howard Kaye - 1987 - Isis 78 (3):461-462.
  36. (1 other version)Evaluation of Evidence in Group Selection Debates.Elisabeth A. Lloyd - 1986 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986:483 - 493.
    I address the controversy in evolutionary biology concerning which levels of biological entity (units) can and do undergo natural selection. I refine a definition of the unit of selection, first presented by William Wimsatt, that is grounded in the structure of natural selection models. I examine Elliott Sober's objection to this structural definition, the "homogeneous populations" problem; I find that neither the proposed definition nor Sober's own causal account can solve the problem. Sober, in his solution using his causal view, (...)
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  37. "A critical note on the use of the term" phenocopy.".Antoine Danchin - 1980 - In Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini (ed.), Language and Learning: The Debate Between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky. Harvard University Press.
    The discovery of the concrete basis for genes, and especially the clarification of mechanisms regulating gene expressions (in particular those that bear on the stepwise processing of hereditary information from the sequences of DNA nucleotides to the proteins) was to give flesh to the concept of a genetic program, for these regulations introduce relationships of order between the various elements of information contained in the genes. These order relations are then revealed during the time-dependent expression of the genetic program. They (...)
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  38. The evolution of Jewish thought.Jacob Bernard Agus - 1973 - New York,: Arno Press.
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  39. Evolution of Hindu moral ideals.Sivaswamy Aiyer & S. P. - 1935 - [Calcutta]: Calcutta University.
  40. A monism of creative behavior.Oliver L. Reiser - 1924 - Journal of Philosophy 21 (18):477-491.
  41. The Evolution of Ideals.Hartley B. Alexander - 1906 - International Journal of Ethics 16 (3):311-332.
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  42. Matter Cycles, Energy Flows, Entropy Ensures Complexity Grows. [REVIEW]Blaine Snow - manuscript
    A review of Eric Schneider and Dorion Sagan's 2006, "Into the Cool: Energy Flows, Thermodynamics, and Life.".
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