Download Slide 1 - Mount St. Joseph University

By: Ronald F. White, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
College of Mount St. Joseph
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Adam Smith
Thomas Malthus
Charles Lyell
Lamarck
Charles Darwin
– Voyage of the Beagle
– The Origin of Species
– The Descent of Man
• Herbert Spencer
• Variation
– A mechanism for generating variable progeny
• Natural Selection
– Competition for survival of between progeny
and other competitors within an environment
• Evolution of the Universe
• Principles
– Simple to Complex
– Microcosm to Macrocosm
– Nonliving to Living
– Unconscious to Conscious
• Cosmological Evolution
• Biological Evolution
• Cultural Evolution
• Creation Myths
• “The Big Bang Theory”
– 10-20 billion years ago
• Movement of galaxies
• Background radiation
• The Earth
• Origin of Homo Sapiens
• Primordial Soup=simple sea compounds, water vapor,
carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, ammonia,
and a source of energy (lightning or sunlight)
• Atoms and Molecules to Replicators (RNA then DNA)
– Nucleotides (adenine, cystocine, guanine, uracil) have been
made in laboratories out of primordia soup.
• Survival Machines-survival of the complex
• More or less stable, more or less copies, more or less
accurate copies.
• Exchange of energy and information.
• Old World Monkeys
• Great Apes
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Chimpanzees
Bonobos
Gorillas
Orangutans
• Hominids
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Homo Sapiens (200 thousand years to present)
Neanderthal (220-30 thousand years ago)
Homo Sapiens Archaic (400 to 200 thousand years ago)
Homo Erectus (2 million to .4 million years ago)
Homo Habilis (2.2 to 1.6 million years ago)
Others
• Evolutionarily Stable Strategies
• Altruism
– Cheats
– Suckers
– Grudgers
• Violence
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Hawks
Doves
Bullies
Retaliators
Prober Retaliators
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Cosmological Evolution
Biological Evolution
Cultural Evolution
Systems Theory (matter or information)
– Micro and Macro Systems
– Open Systems-Closed Systems
– Evolutionary, devolutionary, stable systems
• Nature (genes) v. Nurture (social learning)
• Trial and Error, Creative Destruction
• Biological Environment
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Genes
Individuals
Species
ecosystems
• Social Environment
– Ideas
– Beliefs of Individuals
– Cultural Beliefs
• Unit of Selection
– Group selection
– Individual selection
– Genetic selection
• Evolutionary Direction
– Rate
• Gradual (Darwinism)
• Revolutionary (Punctuated Equilibrium)
– Progress, Complexity
– Stability
– Devolution
• Chance
• Ontological Status of Species
• Ontology of Origin