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Kendig, Catherine Elizabeth. "Biology and ontology : an organism-centred view." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/42121.
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In this dissertation I criticize and reconfigure the ontological framework within which discussions of the organization, ontogeny, and evolution of organic form have often been conducted. Explanations of organismal form are frequently given in terms of a force or essence that exists prior to the organism’s life in the world. Traits of organisms are products of the selective environment and the unbroken linear inheritance of genetically coded developmental programs. Homological traits share unbroken vertical inheritance from a single common ancestor. Species are the product of exclusive gene flow between conspecifics and vertical genetic inheritance. And likewise, race is ascribed on the basis of pre-existing essential features. In place of this underlying preformationism which locates the source of form either in the informational program of inherited genes or within a selecting environment, I suggest form is the product of an organism’s self-construction using diverse resources. This can be understood as a modification of Kant’s view of organisms as self-organizing, set out in his Critique of Judgment (1790). Recast from this perspective the meaning and reference of “trait,” “homology,” “species,” and “race” change. Firstly, a trait may be the product of the organism’s self-construction utilizing multiple ancestral resources. Given this, homologous traits may correspond in some but not all of their features or may share some but not all of their ancestral sources. Homology may be partial. Species may acquire epigenetic, cellular, behavioural, and ecological resources both vertically and horizontally. As such, they are best conceived of as recurrent successions of self-constructed and reconstructed life cycles of organisms sharing similar resources, a similar habitus, similar capacities for sustaining themselves, and repeated generative processes. Lastly, race identity is not preformed but within the control of human organisms as agents who self-construct, interpret, and ascribe their own race identities utilizing diverse sets of dynamic relationships, lived experiences, and histories.
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Frezza, Giulia. "The concept of interaction : crossovers among biology, logic and philosophy." Paris 7, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011PA070008.
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Mon travail propose l'histoire épistémologique du concept d'interaction, que j'ai appelée son "hidden epistemological exaptation", à partir des domaines de la physique (complementarity principle) et de la psychologie (Gestalttheorie) en arrivant à la biologie contemporaine. Ma thèse est que, de ce point de vue, l'interaction est un processus doté d'une polarité. Il a un coté positif, du point de vue de l'action coordonnée entre deux dynamiques ou processus, mais, d'autre part, il a un coté négatif, en tant qu’inter-férence (littéralement: inter-fero en Latin, amener) qui résulte de la co-constitution dans le développement du processus même. Deuxièmement, je propose une comparaison entre ces analyses sur l'interaction et celles qui ont été achevées par l'approche géométrique de Jean-Yves Girard en logique linéaire et en Géométrie de l'Interaction (GdI) qui portent notamment à considérer le lien étroit entre l'interaction et la dualité en logique. L'analyse de l'usage et de la diffusion du ternie "interaction" dans les différents domaines montre une croissance intensive et extensive, notamment dans les 40 dernières années. J'en conclus que le concept d'interaction constitue une "rupture épistémologique" qui met en lumière un cadre épistémologique très expressif pour décrire les être vivants d'un point de vue théoriqueMy work discusses a possible epistemological history of the concept of interaction, which outlines what I name its hidden epistemological exaptation, from the domain of physics (complementarity principle) and psychology (Gestalttheorie) to its recent developments in biology. I advocate that, from this point of view, the interaction results a process due of a polarity. It has a "positive pole", being the coordinated action between two dynamics, or processes. At the same time it has a "negative pole" being an inter-ference (literally: inter-fero from Latin, to bear), in the sense of a result of the co-constitution in the development of the actual process. Moreover I stress a parallel between the discussed investigations about interaction and those achieved by Girard's geometric approach in linear logic and "Geometry of Interaction" (Gol). I especially point out the link between the notion of interaction and that of duality in logic. The analysis of the use and diffusion of the term "interaction" in various scientifïc disciplines shows an intense and extensive growth especially within the last forty years. I propose that we are assisting to a proper epistemological breaking which indicates that the concept of interaction has become now a precious epistemological framework for describing living phenomena from a theoretical point of view
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Cushing, Matthew K. "Between Biology and Sociality: An Evolutionary Perspective on Linguistic Modularity." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1396601796.
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Grinnell, Jason David. "BIOLOGY, POLICY, AND THE RACIAL CONTRACT." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1144763931.
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April, Carolyn W. "From biology to bioethics : can the science of emotion help moral philosophy?" Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.496822.
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Bonnin, Thomas. "Knowledge and knowers of the past : a study in the philosophy of evolutionary biology." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/34361.
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This dissertation proposes an exploration of a variety of themes in philosophy of science through the lens of a case study in evolutionary biology. It draws from a careful analysis and comparison of the hypotheses from Bill Martin and Tom Cavalier-Smith. These two scientists produced contrasted and competing accounts for one of the main events in the history of life, the origin of eukaryotic cells. This case study feeds four main philosophical themes around which this dissertation is articulated. (1) Theorizing: What kind of theory are hypotheses about unique events in the past? (2) Representation: How do hypotheses about the past represent their target? (3) Evidential claims: What kind of evidence is employed and how do they constrain these hypotheses? (4) Pluralism: What are the benefits and the risks associated with the coexistence of rival hypotheses? This work both seeks to rearticulate traditional debates in philosophy of science in the light of a lesser-known case of scientific practice and to enrich the catalogue of existing case studies in the philosophy of historical sciences.
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Atytalla, John. "On the Explanatory Limits of Concepts and Causes: Intentionality, Biology, and the Space of Reasons." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/39449.
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In Mind and World John McDowell argues that our attempts to understand how it
is that our thoughts are rationally answerable to the world are in vain. Whether one
takes Cognitive Science, Evolutionary Psychology or Phenomenology to be capable of answering this question, such attempts are, he claims, merely a consequence of failing to see that they are already gripped by a picture of the world which precludes the possibility of such answers. In particular, he suggests that if we render Nature as that which is circumscribed by the intelligibility of the natural sciences, we leave no room for rationality conceived of in terms of the spontaneity and freedom that Kant associated with it. While McDowell claims to be a `quietist' who is not putting forward his own theory of mind, he is, at the very least, suggesting a theory of nature, one which he dubs `liberal' insofar as it suggests that we widen the scope of nature so that it can be hospitable to the normative features of thought.
This thesis will propose a theory of mind which attempts to show how the causal,
normative, and phenomenological can be seen as continuous features of the natural world. It demonstrates that a careful appraisal of causal or scientific accounts of intentionality can be made compatible with McDowell's commitment to the normativity of thought. By revealing that a biological account of the mind, suitably expanded to include an account of history as a Dynamic Ecological Milieu, generates biological interrogatives for the human organism, we can show that the normative manifests as an emergent property of the nomological. This allows second nature to retain its sui generis status while being continuous with the causal descriptions of first nature. This thesis will also draw from the Phenomenological tradition, as a means of critiquing McDowell's account of “the Myth of the Given" and his rejection of pre-conceptual content. In particular, it will follow Charles Taylor and Hubert Dreyfus in affirming that we should view experience, not in terms of that which provides epistemic foundations, but as the domain of pre-reflective embodiment. This is essential to showing how the biological sciences can inform us about the causal background which makes embodied coping so unreflectively natural. Furthermore, phenomenology has provided a means of engaging with the biological sciences in a non-reductive way, as is evidenced by Maurice Merleau-Ponty's The Structure of Behavior and the more recent neurophenomenological tradition which is largely inspired by his work. Finally, by drawing on these resources, the desideratum of
this thesis is a scientifically informed understanding of what McDowell calls “second nature" and “the space of reasons" in terms of what I have called “biological interrogatives" and the “phenomenology of epistemic agency".
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Jabbour, Jawdath. "L'âme et l'unité de l'homme dans la pensée de Fārābī." Thesis, Paris, EPHE, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016EPHE5091.
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Notre étude interroge de manière systématique ce qu’est l'âme humaine et comment elle constitue un individu dans la pensée de Fārābī. Nous y avons établi que la triade néoplatonicienne nature, âme et intellect structure sa pensée naturelle et qu’elle correspond en l'homme à la substantialité, la vie – en tant que principe général aux êtres vivants – et la pensée. Cette triade est liée à la notion de substantification et permet de comprendre la manière par laquelle différentes fonctions, naturelles, animées et intellectives, peuvent émaner d’une substance une. La constitution de l'individu humain se présente ainsi comme une substantification progressive par ces trois principes. Elle est marquée par une forte téléologisation qui assure l’unité substantielle de l’homme, puisque, lors de la génération de ce dernier, la substance réalisée par la nature puis par l'âme est dès le départ en vue de la réalisation de l'intellect et de sa perfection ultime, comprise comme un retour à soi. Face aux lectures dualistes de son époque, Fārābī revient à une compréhension particulière de l'âme comme forme du corps, et comme principe de l'unité le plus parfait dans le monde sublunaire. Sa compréhension originale de l'hylémorphisme permet de soutenir en même temps la séparabilité de l'intellect, à travers des éléments issus de la tradition néoplatonicienne, notamment l’organisation des fonctions et principes présents en l’homme en différents rangs intermédiairesOur work examines in a systematic way what is the human soul and how it constitutes an individual in al-Fārābī’s thought. We have shown in it that the Neoplatonist triad of nature, soul and intellect structures his natural thought and that it corresponds in man to substantiality, life – as a principle shared with all the living creatures – and thought. This triad is linked to the notion of substantification and allows us to understand the way different functions can emanate from what is a single substance. The way man is constituted by these three principles is presented as a progressive substantification characterized by a strong teleologisation. This teleologisation insures man’s substantial unity since, in the process of his generation, the substance realized first by nature and then by soul exists for the sake of its realization by the intellect and the attainment of man’s perfection, perceived as a return to the self. Facing the dualist positions of his time, al-Fārābī upheld a particular reading of the soul as the form of a body and as the most accomplished principle of unity in the sublunary world. His original comprehension of hylemorphism asserts the separability of the intellect through his usage of neoplatonist elements, notably the organization of the principles and functions that are present in the human substance into various intermediary ranks
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Aarons, Jeremy P. (Jeremy Peter) 1968. "Thinking locally : a disunified methodology of science." Monash University, Dept. of Philosophy, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8540.
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Ratti, E. "THE CONTEXT OF DISCOVERY OF DATA-DRIVEN BIOLOGY." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/357962.
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My PhD dissertation aims (1) at reconstructing the structure of the context of discovery of ‘data-driven’ (big data, data intensive) biology and (2) at comparing it to traditional molecular approaches. Within the current debate in philosophy of science, ‘traditional approaches’ in molecular biology should be understood as the discovery and heuristics strategies identified by mechanistic philosophers such as Carl Craver and Lindley Darden. Therefore, key questions of my thesis are: what is the structure of discovery of data-driven biology? Is data-driven biology methodology different from traditional molecular approaches?
The reason for doing such an analysis comes from a recent controversy among biologists. In particular, sides disagree on whether high throughput sequencing technologies are stimulating the development of a new scientific method somehow irreducible to traditional approaches. I will try to disentangle the debate by reconstructing and comparing data-driven and traditional methodologies. The dissertation is composed of five chapters.
The first chapter deals with methodological issues. How do I compare data-driven and traditional molecular biology structures of discovery? Mechanistic philosophers have extensively characterized the discovery structure of traditional molecular biology. However, there is not such an analysis for data-driven biology. In order to do this, I will critically revise the discovery/justification distinction. The debate on discovery/justification has provided valuable tools on how discovery strategies might be conceived, and it is clearly one of the main forefathers of recent philosophical discussions on scientific methodologies in biology and physics.
In Chapter 2 I shall to try to infer a full-fledged account of discovery for data-driven biology by means of the philosophical tools developed in Chapter 1. This analysis will be done in parallel to the investigation of key examples of data-driven biology, namely genome-wide association studies and cancer genomics. In Chapter 3 I analyze the epistemic strategies enabled by biological databases in data-driven biology. In Chapter 4, I will show how the discovery structure of ‘traditional molecular biology’ can be more efficiently rephrased through the same theoretical framework that I use to characterize data-driven biology.
Since data-driven and traditional molecular biology seem to adopt the same discovery structure, one might consider the controversy motivating my research ill posed. However, in Chapter 5 I shall argue that there is still a valuable reason of disagreement between the sides. Actually, data-driven and traditional molecular biology endorse different cognitive values, which provide the criteria for evaluating models and findings as adequate or not. Here one might say that, although the structures of discovery (i.e. how reasoning and experimental strategies are structured and depend on each other) of the two sides are the same, the contexts of discovery (i.e. the set of both reasoning/experimental strategies and epistemic values/background assumptions that motivate discovery) are different. Therefore, in this last chapter I shall pinpoint the cognitive values behind traditional and data-driven biology, and how these commitments stimulate the heated disagreement motivating my research.
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Ariew, Andre 1968. "Innateness: A developmental account." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289478.
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Ascriptions of innateness are ubiquitous in the cognitive, behavioral and biological sciences. For example, some linguists think that humans possess an "innate" language aquisition device. Some ethologists think that a great number of animal behaviors are "innate". Implicit in these ascriptions is the belief that innateness is a well-understood biological phenomenon. The question I would like to address in this dissertation is, what makes a morphological, physiological or behavioral feature "innate"? According to some nay-sayers, innateness is not well-defined in biology and the practice of ascribing innateness to various biological traits should be dropped from respectable science. Proponents of this view think that the notion of innateness rests on a dichotomous conception of development that has been, through decades of powerful criticism, proven to be mistaken. Accordingly the burden of proof rests on those who employ the innateness concept to demonstrate that despite the criticisms there really is a biological phenomenon underlying the concept. In this dissertation I will attempt to shoulder this burden.
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Deulofeu, Batllori Roger. "Scientific explanation in biology. Beyond mechanistic explanation." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/668748.
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Understanding how scientists explain has been one of the major goals of the philosophy of science. Given that explaining is one of the most important tasks that scientists aim at and given the high specialization that currently affects all scientific disciplines, we encounter what might at first glance appear to us as many different types of explanations and very different ways of explaining natural phenomena. This suggests a pluralist picture regarding scientific explanation, particularly in biology, namely the existence of different accounts of explanation that do not share an interesting common core. However, the main goal of the traditional analysis of scientific explanation was to elaborate a monist theory of explanation according to which all scientific explanations share a common core that makes them what they are - i.e. that they can be identified by a commonly shared set of necessary and jointly sufficient conditions. The monist accounts mainly draw on examples from physics to illustrate how this is supposed to work, leaving examples from the special science, like biology, aside.
In the last twenty years, nonetheless, the rise of the New Mechanism philosophy, with its notion of mechanistic explanation, has become the dominant and widely accepted account among the philosophers of science to analyze scientific explanation in biology, challenging the pluralist view. The New mechanist account of scientific explanation is essentially monist since their defenders claim that mechanisms are all what really matters to explanation. According to mechanistic explanation, in order to explain a biological phenomenon, we have to discover the mechanism that is responsible for it. Further, we have to decompose this mechanism in order to identify its component parts and identify the causal story that connects the components with the phenomenon. Mechanistic explanations are thus considered causal explanations.
The New Mechanism philosophy has arguably been very successful in analyzing how explanation works in a huge diversity of models in biology, suggesting that their account of mechanistic explanation is the only legitimate of in biology. Furthermore, New Mechanism philosophy provides a new framework that contributed to tackle traditional problems of the philosophy of science related to notions such as laws of nature, function, causation, etc.
Although mechanistic explanation has proved very successful in analyzing the explanatory force of many biological models, its scope in biology is still under discussion. In the last few years, there has been voices limiting the extension of this account. On the one hand, there has been philosophers claiming that in some biological models, mathematics plays not only a representational role but an explanatory role, suggesting that those models provide explanations that rather than identifying a mechanism with its components and causal story, identify mathematical properties that are explanatory of some phenomenon. They claim that in those explanations, the system under analysis has a mathematical structure whose mathematical properties are explanatory of a particular range of explananda. On the other hand, and despite the claim widely accepted that there are no laws in biology, some philosophers claim we can still consider that some biological models explain by appeal to laws of nature, suggesting covering law accounts of scientific explanation.
The present thesis dissertation is a contribution to the aforementioned debate. It provides examples of biological models whose explanatory power does not lie in its identification of mechanisms with its parts and causal story, even if the models look somehow mechanistic. I claim they provide non-mechanistic (and non-causal) explanations, in so far as the models, even if they could identify a mechanism, do not explain by pinpointing information about its causal story.
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Marshall, Jennifer. "The development of contemporary medical genetics research models and the need for scientific responsibility /." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=82289.
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Current medical genetics research is dominated by a single theory that supports the Human Genome Project rationale. This thesis investigates this and several alternative hypotheses and the ethical context related to their development. Firstly, the hypotheses are discussed in detail followed by a subsection in which research evidence based on each hypothesis is cited. Secondly, these medical genetics hypotheses are situated within the contemporary medical paradigm. To conclude, the thesis examines in depth the ethical and practical implications of medical genetics research. A framework of analysis of scientific responsibility is used to explore these implications. Scientific responsibility, as presented in this thesis, is a process consisting of three steps: (1) scientific discourse; (2) the development of the nature of scientific responsibility; and, (3) effective criticism. Once scientific responsibility is defined, the term is applied specifically to the field of medical genetics research.
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Patel, Kavita. "AYURVEDA: A STUDY OF EASTERN PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE." Miami University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1210169950.
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Craig, Lindsay R. "Scientific Change in Evolutionary Biology: Evo-Devo and the Developmental Synthesis." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1275916427.
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Donaghy, Josephine. "Researchers' assumptions and mathematical models : a philosophical study of metabolic systems biology." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/16001.
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This thesis examines the philosophical implications of the assumptions made by researchers involved in the development of mathematical models of metabolism. It does this through an analysis of several detailed historical case studies of models between the 1960’s and the present day, thus also contributing to the growing literature on the historiography of biochemical systems biology. The chapters focus on four main topics: the relationship between models and theory, temporal decomposition as a simplifying strategy for building models of complex metabolic systems, interactions between modellers and experimental biochemists, and the role of biochemical data. Four categories of assumptions are shown to play a significant role in these different aspects of model development; ontological assumptions, idealising assumptions, assumptions about data, and researchers’ commitments. Building on this analysis, the thesis brings to light the importance of researcher’s ontological and idealising assumptions about the temporal organisation, alongside the spatial organisation, of metabolic systems. It also offers an account of different forms of interactions between research groups – hostile interactions, closed collaboration, and open collaboration – on the basis of differences in the characteristics of researcher’s commitments. Throughout the case studies, biological data play a powerful role in model development by virtue of the contents of available data sets, as well as researchers’ perceptions of those data, which are in turn influenced by their ontological assumptions. The historical trajectories explored illustrate how the relationships between different facets of model building, and their associated philosophical abstractions, are often best understood as transient features within a highly dynamic research process, whose role depends on the specific stage of modelling in which they are enacted. This thesis provides an expanded perspective on the different types and roles of assumptions in the development of mathematical models of metabolism, which is firmly grounded in a historical analysis of scientific practice.
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Witteveen, Joeri. "Rethinking 'typological' vs 'population' thinking : a historical and philosophical reassessment of a troubled dichotomy." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648394.
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Nicholson, Daniel James. "Organism and mechanism : a critique of mechanistic thinking in biology." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/117787.
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In this thesis I present a critical examination of the role played by mechanistic ideas in shaping our understanding of living systems. I draw on a combination of historical, philosophical, and scientific resources to uncover a number of problems which I take to result from the adoption of mechanistic thinking in biology. I provide an analysis of the historical development of the conflict between mechanistic and vitalistic conceptions of life since the seventeenth century, and I argue that the basic terms of this conflict remain central to current disputes over the nature of the organism as well as the question of how far the theories, concepts, and methods of physics, chemistry, and engineering can ultimately take us in the explanation of life. I offer a detailed critique of the machine conception of the organism, which constitutes the central unifying idea of mechanistic biology. I argue that this notion, despite its undeniable heuristic value, is fundamentally inadequate as a theory of the organism due to a number of basic differences between organisms and machines. Ultimately, I suggest that the neglected vitalistic tradition in biology actually possesses the best conceptual tools for coming to terms with the nature of living systems. I also undertake a philosophical analysis of the concept of mechanism in biology. I argue that the term ‘mechanism’ is actually an umbrella term for three distinct notions, which are unfortunately conflated in philosophical discussions. I explore the relation between mechanistic biology and the new philosophical interest in the concept of mechanism and I show that these two research programs have little to do with one another because each of them understands the concept of mechanism in a different way. Finally, I draw on the historical and philosophical foundations of cell theory to propose an epistemological perspective which enables the reductionistic explanation of the organism without having to give up the distinctive features of life in the process. In this way, I show this perspective to have significant advantages over the classic physicochemical reductionism of mechanistic biology.
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Leroux, Nicole. "What are biological species? : the impact of the current debate in taxonomy on the species problem." Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=69538.
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For the past twenty years, taxonomy has been in a state of turmoil. This confusion brings along with it four distinct schools of thought, each of which offers a different concept of biological species. The thesis will show that these concepts are purely operational and have only a weak theoretical force. In turn, it will be argued that a sound definition of species uses the notion of natural kinds, which is itself defined in term of non-causal nomological regularities.
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Nicoglou, Antonine. "La plasticité du vivant : histoire d'un concept et enjeux pour la biologie." Thesis, Paris 1, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013PA010665.
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Le concept de plasticité est progressivement devenu un concept théorique essentiel dans la biologie depuis le début du XXe siècle. Les biologistes s'y réfèrent aussi bien en biologie du développement, pour caractériser la potentialité des cellules à se diviser et à se différencier, en écologie, pour décrire la pluralité des formes observables pour une espèce donnée en fonction des environnements dans lesquels elle se développe, ou encore en génétique, pour préciser la manière dont l'information génétique peut être régulée. Certains auteurs en sont même venus à se demander si le concept de plasticité n'avait pas acquis aujourd'hui l'importance théorique qui avait été accordée au concept de gène en biologie au début du siècle précédent. Dans cette étude, nous proposons une analyse historique et épistémologique du concept de plasticité dans les sciences du vivant. Nous montrons que si le concept opératoire de plasticité sert à caractériser un paradigme épistémique donné - c'est-à-dire le maintien d'un usage singulier, désormais daté, du concept, fortement lié à l'émergence de la génétique -, la récurrence de l'idée générale de plasticité, tout au long de l'histoire des sciences du vivant, signale son caractère essentiel pour envisager certains phénomènes du vivant. Cette étude montre également que si le concept de plasticité est devenu un élément-clé pour penser une « synthèse étendue» de l'évolution, son importance heuristique pour la biologie contemporaine ne se limite pas à cette seule ambition: tel qu'il est mobilisé dans la biologie contemporaine, le concept de plasticité cherche le plus souvent à rendre compte d'une spécificité du vivantSince the early twentieth century, plasticity has gradually become an important theoretical concept in biology. Biologists refer to it either in developmental biology, to characterize cells potential to divide and differentiate, or in ecology to describe the diversity of observable forms for a given trait in environments in which the species develop, or even in genetics to describe how genetic information can be regulated. Some authors have even come to wonder whether the concept of plasticity have not nowadays acquired the theoretical importance that was given to the concept of the gene in biology at the beginning of the previous century. In this study, we propose a historical and epistemological analysis of plasticity in life sciences. We show that if the operating concept of plasticity characterizes a given epistemic paradigm - that is to say, the continuity of a certain use, now dated, of the concept, closely linked to the emergence of genetics - the recurrence of the general idea of plasticity, throughout the history of life sciences, indicates its essential role in the way we think of life processes. The study also shows that although plasticity has become a key element in order to think about an "Extended Eynthesis" in evolution, its heuristic importance for contemporary biology is not limited to this single ambition: as it is mobilized in contemporary biology, the concept of plasticity most often seeks to account for the specificity of living systems
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Cartwright, Kelly Sue. "Exploring the Human Dimension of Conservation Gardening." Thesis, Prescott College, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10113610.
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Conservation gardening incorporates environmentally friendly techniques into the care of urban landscapes. Prior research has demonstrated an ecological benefit of this approach to residential land management. This research was undertaken to better understand the individuals who partake in conservation gardening. A mail questionnaire was developed that included several connection to nature indicators, an outdoor recreation inventory, and demographic questions. Participants (n = 180) included individuals from three regional conservation gardening certification programs in the US. Study participants demonstrated high connection to nature across multiple indicators, and environmental concern was motivated by non-human species and other people as opposed to personal benefit. The connection to nature indicators employed in the study demonstrated high correlation with each other. Conservation gardeners were active in outdoor recreation; high participation rates were documented in the categories of bird watching, gardening, and hiking, with moderate participation rates in kayaking, and cycling. Several demographic trends were evident in the study population. Participants tended to be older, well-educated, above-average earners, pet owners, and the majority of individuals were female. Employment status of participants was divided equally among being a homemaker, working full-time or being self-employed, and being retired, and over half of the individuals in the survey were volunteers. This research established baseline data for the conservation gardening population, identified avenues for future research, and provided suggestions for reaching populations not currently represented in the conservation gardening community.
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Lambert, Enoch. "Species, Humans, and Transformations." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:23845431.
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Do biological species have essences? The debate over this question in philosophy of biology exhibits fundamental confusion both between and within authors. In What to Salvage from the Species Essentialism Debate, I argue that the best way forward is to drop the question and its terms in order to make progress on two issues: how to individuate species taxa; and how to make sense of changes in explanatory frameworks across the Darwinian historical divide. I further argue that a primary motivation for anti-essentialism, biological variation, matters differently to each project.
Anti-essentialism in the philosophy of biology has inspired influential rejections of the idea that there is such a thing as human nature. In More Bark than Bite, I show that the arguments are significantly weaker than supposed. Moreover, none of the weighty consequences thought to follow from any genuine sense in which there is no human nature, actually do follow. The evolution-based denial of human nature has little to contribute to inquiries into the human condition, both philosophical and scientific.
Decisions about whether to undergo experiences that could change the very preference-base on which the choice is made are “transformative”. L. A. Paul argues that transformative decisions present a problem for standard decision theory when approached in a way that leans on evaluations of the experiential consequences of the choices. Her solution proposes that we approach such decisions by asking ourselves how much we value the kind of discovery involved in transformative experience. In Shifting Attention on Transformative Choice, I present two problems for her solution and offer an alternative. Transformative decisions may be rationally approached by asking ourselves how much we judge the activities on the other side of transformation to be worthwhile. This proposal helps make better sense of our relationship to experiential consequences of transformation, which is more flexible than Paul acknowledges.Philosophy
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Vest, Matthew. "Wittgenstein and the foundations of bioethics : reflections on scientific and religious thinking in modernity." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50902/.
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This thesis argues that bioethics emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s not as a novel way to engage new technological or social ethical questions of life (bios), but rather as a late, post-Enlightenment secular phenomenon. In particular, bioethics seeks to adopt a methodology of theorizing on morality that is prominent in modern science, and this is a strategy that I contest by following Wittgenstein’s critique of scientific theorizing. Wittgenstein’s later exercises with language present a critical and clarifying way to identify the immanent and self-referential schema of principlism in bioethics. Additionally, I show how Wittgenstein’s approach to philosophy as a skillful and therapeutic activity rather than a cognitive content is informative for bioethics. Hence, I suggest that in pre-modern, traditional eras—or even in many contemporary non-Western global sectors—bioethics largely would be indistinct from religious and theological dogma and practices. I argue that the modern mind prioritizes material causality, leading to a moral techne that divides spirit from matter, vios from bios. Within such a schema, nature—and especially the medicalized human body—is managed, produced, and constructed. Furthermore, I argue that Wittgenstein gestures towards an ancient transcendent way beyond the modern division of vios and bios, and that a full vision of seeing life may be glimpsed through an apophatic epistemology that guides one towards an understanding of ethics itself as a form of apophatic and embodied knowledge.
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Martins, Giselle Alves. "Explicações funcionais na Biologia: o fenômeno polinização." Universidade de São Paulo, 2016. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/59/59139/tde-28032016-103919/.
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Considerando explicações sobre o fenômeno polinização a partir de narrativas biológicas, este estudo foi norteado pela seguinte pergunta: até que ponto alguns termos, aparentemente finalistas, podem ser usados em textos científicos sem que ocorra um prejuízo no entendimento de questões ontogenéticas e filogenéticas? Diante esta questão, os objetivos desta pesquisa foram: i) apresentar uma discussão sobre as explicações funcionais na biologia, especificamente em relação ao fenômeno polinização e ii) contribuir para reflexões epistemológicas no ensino de Biologia. Foram selecionados dois filósofos para definições e análises sobre linguagens funcionais, Larry Wright e Robert Cummins. Para análise dos textos científicos sobre o fenômeno polinização, foi realizado o recorte de dois momentos históricos, um do século XVIII, quando se iniciou os estudos sobre polinização, e outro do século XIX, quando a teoria da evolução estava em discussão. As duas interpretações filosóficas defendem, embora de uma maneira distinta, a existência de uma ideia explanatória do conceito de função para a biologia. A concepção de Larry Wright (1973) sustenta que a função explica por que algo existe e a de Robert Cummins (1975) considera que o poder explicativo da função está na avaliação de sua contribuição para o sistema do qual faz parte, não sendo relevante para sua compreensão a informação sobre sua origem evolutiva. As duas obras científicas primárias selecionadas para análises, de Christian Sprengel (1750-1816) e Charles Darwin (1809-1882), apresentaram alguns termos aparentemente finalistas, ou seja, com conotação de caráter teleológico. A análise dos dados permite dizer que a questão sobre função na biologia é bastante inquietante. Tanto a ciência quanto a filosofia estão em processos de desvelar quais as melhores formas de tratamento de termos finalistas que satisfaçam os problemas de seu uso sem que ocorra um prejuízo no entendimento das questões evolutivas do fenômeno estudado. Este estudo sugere uma redução do uso de termos teleológicos em textos científicos, uma vez que há diferentes visões sobre este conceito, o que pode gerar interpretações incorretas. Além disso, as implicações deste estudo para a Didática da Biologia são apresentadas por meio de inserções filosóficas-epistemológicas em aulas de Biologia com o intuito de permitir o desenvolvimento dos conteúdos biológicos de forma mais reflexiva e contextualizada.Considering explanations about the phenomenon of pollination from biological narratives, this study was guided by the question: at what extent some terms, supposedly finalists, can be used in scientific texts without losses of ontogenetic and phylogenetic meaning? Therefore, the objectives of this research were: i) to present a discussion around functional explanations in biology, specifically in relation to the phenomenon of pollination; and ii) to contribute to epistemological reflections in Biology education. Two philosophers were selected for definitions and analysis of functional languages, Larry Wright and Robert Cummins. To the analysis of the scientific texts about the phenomenon of pollination, two historical moments were framed, one from the XVIII century, when the studies of pollination started, and another from the XIX century, when the theory of evolution was under discussion. Both philosophical interpretations defend, though in distinct ways, the existence of an explanatory idea of the concept of function to biology. Larry Wrights (1973) conception of function is that it explains why something exists, while Robert Cummins (1975) considers that the explicatory power of the function lies in the evaluation of its contribution to the system it belongs, but the information of its evolution history is not relevant to comprehend the function. Both primary scientific works selected for analysis, from Christian Sprengel (1750-1816) and Charles Darwin (1809-1882), presented some terms apparently finalists, which means, with teleological connotative character. The data analysis allowed saying that the inquiry about function in biology is quite intriguing. Science and philosophy are in process of unveiling the best approaches to finalist terms that would satisfy their usage problems without comprehension losses of the evolutive processes of the studied phenomenon. This study suggests a reduction of the use of teleological terms in scientific texts, since there are different analyses about the concept that may lead to misinterpretation. Moreover, the implications of this study to the Didactics of Biology are presented by means of philosophycal-epistemological inserts in Biology classes in order to enable the development of the biological contents in a more flexible and contextualized way.
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Bolduc, Jean-Sébastien. "Epistémologie historique de l'étude du comportement animal." Thèse, Dijon, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1866/3257.
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Dans cette enquête nous entreprenons d’explorer la notion de comportement animal telle que l’exprime une discipline contemporaine, l’écologie comportementale. Afin de procéder à l’examen d’une notion aussi complexe, positionnée dans un contexte étroit, nous développons et utilisons un outil d’investigation : l’épistémologie historique. De façon générale, cet outil consiste à intégrer en une seule démarche les perspectives d’investigation diachronique et synchronique sur un même thème. Ainsi, pour procéder à l’examen de la notion de comportement animal, nous puisons d’abord dans l’histoire récente de l’écologie comportementale. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement à sa filiation avec l’éthologie classique et, après avoir reconstitué la trame historique qui unit les deux disciplines, nous procédons à leur comparaison. Cette seconde étape de notre épistémologie contribue à mettre en évidence plusieurs différences critiques dans la conception du comportement animal qu’endosse chacune des disciplines. Ces distinctions, en faisant ressortir la spécificité de l’écologie comportementale, nous permettent ensuite de nous intéresser à la notion de comportement animal à travers les approches principales que cette discipline mobilise. Ultimement, nous élaborons deux définitions de la notion de comportement animal. La première reflète le statut ontologique du comportement dans la discipline, alors que la seconde correspond à la conception qui se dégage de la pratique des écologues.In this inquiry I undertake to explore the notion of animal behaviour as it is expounded in a contemporary field of inquiry: behavioural ecology. In order to carry out an analysis of such a complex notion, localized in a very narrow context, I design and use a specific tool of investigation called “historical epistemology”. Simply understood, this tool consists in the integration of diachronic and synchronic perspectives of investigation into a single approach to investigate a circumscribed theme. So, in order to proceed to the analysis of the notion of animal behaviour, I first draw into the recent history of behavioural ecology. I take special interest in its filiation with classical ethology and, after having reconstructed the historical frame that links the two fields together, I proceed to compare them. This comparison, the second step of my epistemology, is used to highlight the characteristics of the animal behaviour conceptions put forward by the two scientific disciplines. These distinctions, bringing to the fore the specificity of behavioural ecology, then allow me to scrutinize the notion of animal behaviour as it is instantiated in the main approaches mobilized by the discipline (especially what I identifies as the “phenotypic adaptationist”, the “phenotypic structural”, the “comparative” and the “by reduction” approaches). Last, I design two definitions of the notion of animal behaviour. The first one reflects the ontological status of the notion in this field of investigation, whereas the second corresponds to the conception underlying behavioural ecologist practices.
Projet réalisé dans le cadre d'une cotutelle avec l'Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France)
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Singh, Satya Ram. "Biology of the rice leafroller Cnaphalocrocis (Marasmia) exigua (Butler) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Pauristinae) in Fiji." Thesis, Richmond, N.S.W. : School of Horticulture, Faculty of Science, Technology and Agriculture, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 1997. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/443.
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The rice leafroller Cnaphalocrocis exigua (Butler) in the only species of the rice leaf folder/roller complex in Fiji. It is one of the major rice pests in the country, its pest status being exacerbrated by the cultivation of high-yielding varieties with minimal pest resistance. Detailed studies on the biology of the moth, in particular on the development, emergence, mating and flight behaviour, effect of adult nutrition on fecundity, egg hatchability and longevity, effect of larval nutrition on larval survival, pupation, pupal weight, pupal eclosion, and fecundity, egg hatchability and longevity of resultant adults, parasitism, and population ecology of C. exigua were carried out in Fiji from 1985 to 1987, and from June to August 1990. This study showed that there are several parasitoids of C. exigua in Fiji, and of those the egg and larval parasitoids Trichogramma sp. and Trathala flavo-orbitalis (Cameron) respectively are significant biotic mortality factors. Their impact as natural suppressors of C. exigua in fields of high yielding rice varieties was, however, inadequate to prevent C. exigua reaching damaging levels. Since C. exigua responds strongly to rice varietal differences, plant nitrogen status, and seasonal factors, is suspected to utilise pheromones during mating, and has numerous biocontrol agents in South East Asia and the Philippines, it appears to be an excellent candidate for an integrated pest management (IPM) program in Fiji. Before IPM strategies can be formulated, however, further investigations on rice varietal resistance, exploitation of exotic parasitoids and pathogens, and detailed studies on the possible presence of sex pheromones need to be conducted.
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Booth, Austin Greeley. "Essays on Biological Individuality." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13070056.
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Much of biology, especially evolutionary theory, makes assumptions about the individuality of living things. A population, for example, is made up of individuals. Those individuals sometimes reproduce, creating new individuals. The very use of these concepts requires that living individuals can be distinguished both synchronically and diachronically. There are many examples in nature, however, in which a living system is present, but it is not clear how to understand that system's individuality. Plants, fungi, colonial marine invertebrates, insect colonies, and symbiosis are all classic cases that have puzzled biologists interested in understanding their population structure and evolution. Scientific exploration of these issues has connections with traditional philosophical terrain, particularly the ontology of persistence and the nature of individuality broadly construed. A biologically informed philosophical literature has arisen in recent years, aimed at understanding the nature of biological individuality and its role in biological theorizing.
My dissertation makes two kinds of contributions to this current literature. One contribution is theoretical, reframing our thinking about biological individuality. I distinguish between two categories of individuality and argue that they play different roles in theorizing about nature. One important kind of individual is that of the organism, understood as an entity that persists through space and time, takes in and processes resources from the environment, and maintains physiological autonomy. Another important kind of individual is that of the evolutionary individual, understood as an entity that has the capacity to participate in processes of natural selection. Distinguishing between these two types of individuality has theoretical utility, keeping clear the distinctive kinds of biological processes that individuals engage in. The other contribution of my dissertation involves detailed natural historical analysis of three kinds of problem cases. Using the framework articulated earlier in the dissertation, I assess the individuality of symbioses between larger organisms and their microbial associates, mushroom-producing fungi, and the classic case of ant colonies. The combined result of the assessments is a hierarchical pluralism about biological individuality.Philosophy
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Patton, Paul. "Ecological realism, prediction, and a new understanding of perception." Thesis, Indiana University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1561403.
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The psychologist J. J. Gibson, and later the enactivists, espoused a view of perception emphasized active sensory exploration, and the biological functions perception serves. They tended to neglect the internal complexity of perceptual systems. Neuroscientists and computer vision researchers, on the other hand, focus on the complex structure and inner workings of perceptual systems, to the neglect of biological and behavioral context. Here I will formulate a version of ecological realism which reconciles and critiques these seemingly disparate approaches.
I argue that the objects of perception are relational invariant structures preserved within the changing flux of perceptual input. The function of perception is to enable appropriate behavior with respect to affordances, which are objective three-way relations between worldly features, animal abilities, and animal needs. The invariant relationships perceived tend to be those which signify affordance relationships for the species and individual in question.
The perception-action cycle is but one example of the circular dynamics of perceptual systems. The neural portions of such systems are also in a state of constant feed-forward and feedback dynamical interaction with one another. These dynamics confer an active autonomy on perceptual systems as manifested by phenomena like dreams, hallucinations, and perceptual illusions. Metaphorically, such systems may function to constantly formulate and test hypotheses about affordances based on perceptual evidence and prior categorical experience. Hierarchical predictive models of perception, in which perceptual systems consist of a hierarchy of Bayesian statistical predictors, represent a possible means by which this metaphor might be crafted into a testable scientific hypothesis. Perception, even if it involves actively autonomous perceptual systems coping with ambiguous input, is epistemically reliable most of the time, because it is constantly tested by action. Perceptual states are true or valid if they bear an appropriate relationship to objective affordance relationships, and false or invalid if they do not. These views require a reformulation of the venerable distinction between `direct' and `indirect' perception. Perception is ontologically direct in the sense of dealing in objective relationships in the world, but justificationally indirect in the sense of requiring an argument that perceptual beliefs are generally epistemically reliable.
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Szabó, Györgyi. "Évolution des systèmes complexes : une étude des travaux philosophiques d'Ervin Laszlo, de la théorie des systèmes à la théorie d'un champ universel d'information." Thesis, Paris 5, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014PA05H011/document.
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Cette thèse est une étude des travaux d’Ervin Laszlo sur cinquante ans. Elle met en valeur ses idées les plus importantes, les événements et les moments charnières de l’évolution de sa pensée qui l’ont conduit à sa position philosophique actuelle ; elle passe en revue les étapes du voyage philosophique de Laszlo à la découverte et vers la compréhension de « la manière dont les choses sont » et de « la manière dont les choses deviennent » en termes d’évolution des systèmes complexes, ainsi que du but et de la signification de la vie humaineA study of fifty years of philosophical work by Ervin Laszlo, highlighting the most important ideas, events and turning points in the thinking that led to his present-day philosophical position. This thesis reviews Laszlo’s philosophical voyage towards his uncovering and understanding of how things are and how things are becoming in terms of the evolution of complex systems as well as the purpose and meaning of human life
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Roche, David. "Biodiversity: Its Measurement and Metaphysics." University of Sydney. Unit for the History and Philosophy of Science, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/819.
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Biodiversity is a concept that plays a key role in both scientific theories such as the species-area law and conservation politics. Currently, however, little agreement exists on how biodiversity should be defined, let alone measured. This has led to suggestions that biodiversity is not a metaphysically robust concept, with major implications for its usefulness in formulating scientific theories and making conservation decisions. A general discussion of biodiversity is presented, highlighting its application both in scientific and conservation contexts, its relationship with environmental ethics, and existing approaches to its measurement. To overcome the limitations of existing biodiversity concepts, a new concept of biocomplexity is proposed. This concept equates the biodiversity of any biological system with its effective complexity. Biocomplexity is shown to be the only feasible measure of biodiversity that captures the essential features desired of a general biodiversity concept. In particular, it is a well-defined, measurable and strongly intrinsic property of any biological system. Finally, the practical application of biocomplexity is discussed.
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Griffiths, Jack. "Re-thinking 'flourishing' as an organic concept of the good : the interpretation of development and the evaluation of life." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/34080.
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This thesis explores the relation between the normative structures brought to bear on the evaluation of life and the way in which the coming-into-being of living organisms is fundamentally understood. It provides a new analysis and critique of the standard concept of ‘flourishing’ in neo-Aristotelian meta-ethics, by uncovering the underlying interpretation of organismic becoming on which it relies, and showing how the turn to a ‘constructivist’ conception of development in contemporary biological theory both disrupts this underlying metaphysics, and provides resources for re-thinking flourishing on a fundamentally different basis. The central claim is that we should turn from a view in which life is given a form to fulfil, and becoming is the process of its fulfilment, to one in which living is the process of creating a way in the world, as life goes along.
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Honenberger, Phillip. "Mediating Life: Animality, Artifactuality, and the Distinctiveness of the Human in the Philosophical Anthropologies of Scheler, Plessner, Gehlen, and Mead." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2013. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/214772.
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PhilosophyPh.D.
What is a human being? In the early 20th century, the "philosophical anthropologists" Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner, and Arnold Gehlen approached this question through a comparison between human and non-human organisms' species-typical interaction with environments and an account of the conditions of the emergence of "higher" cognitive and agentive functions on this basis. In this text I offer a critical review of the central arguments of Scheler, Plessner, and Gehlen on these issues, as well as of their debates with figures such as Jakob von Uexküll, Martin Heidegger, and G. H. Mead. I take note of the consequences of various answers to this question for the interpretation of human beings' dually biological and cultural status and for the theory of the human self or person. I argue that the approaches of Plessner and Gehlen, despite objections raised by Hans Joas and others, have important advantages over those of Scheler, Uexküll, Heidegger, and Mead, as well as over recent suggestions by Korsgaard and Tomasello. I conclude by outlining a reconstructed philosophical anthropology that supports a new perspective on the question of human distinctiveness and on a number of related questions in the context of contemporary debates.
Temple University--Theses
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Yvonnet, Sarah. "Une approche épistémologique du microenvironnement tumoral." Thesis, Sorbonne université, 2021. http://www.theses.fr/2021SORUL163.
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La recherche sur le cancer a longtemps été dominée par un programme de recherche génétique et moléculaire. Cependant, l'accumulation de données expérimentales à partir des années 2000 souligne également l’importance d’un autre facteur dans la carcinogenèse : le microenvironnement tumoral (TME). L'étude du TME s’accompagne de différentes affirmations dans la littérature scientifique : elle serait une opportunité d’améliorer les thérapies et enrichir les connaissances actuelles ou au contraire elle serait un nouveau « paradigme » et permettrait de développer de nouveaux types de thérapies. Notre thèse propose une analyse de l’évolution du domaine de l’oncologie (et de l’hypothèse d’un potentiel changement scientifique) à partir de l’introduction du domaine d’étude du TME. Nous proposons une approche originale de cette question en adoptant deux hypothèses épistémologiques. Premièrement, nous analysons à la fois la communauté scientifique et la communauté médicale. Nous étudions le continuum existant entre recherche fondamentale et pratique clinique, en articulant philosophie de la biologie et philosophie de la médecine. Deuxièmement, nous menons notre analyse philosophique non pas seulement d’un point de vue théorique mais également au plus près des pratiques, des comportements, des méthodes, des organisations de recherche qui participent à ce changement scientifique. Pour cela, nous recourrons à des méthodes peu utilisées en philosophie comme celles des entretiens semi-directifs ou des observations de terrain. Cette approche a pour vocation de produire une analyse philosophique qui contribue à la fois à la littérature philosophique et à la littérature biomédicaleCancer research has long been dominated by a genetic and molecular research approach of the disease. However, the accumulation of experimental data since 2000 also highlights the importance of another factor in carcinogenesis: the tumor microenvironment (TME). The study of the TME is accompanied by different assertions in the scientific literature: it would be an opportunity to improve therapies and enrich current knowledge or, on the contrary, it would be a new "paradigm" and would allow the development of new types of therapies.Our thesis proposes an analysis of the evolution of the field of oncology (and of the hypothesis of a potential scientific change) starting from the introduction of the study of the TME. We propose an original approach to this question by adopting two epistemological assumptions. First, we analyze both the scientific and medical communities. We study the continuum between fundamental research and clinical practice, articulating philosophy of biology and philosophy of medicine. Secondly, we conduct our philosophical analysis not only from a theoretical point of view but also as close as possible to the practices, behaviors, methods, and research organizations that participate in this scientific change. To do so, we will use methods rarely used in philosophy, such as semi-directive interviews or field observations.This approach aims to produce a philosophical analysis that contributes to both the philosophical and biomedical literature
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Khan, Inamullah. "Aspects of the biology of the ladybird beetle Stethorus vagans (Blackburn) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)." Thesis, View thesis, 2000. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/779.
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This thesis reports laboratory and field investigations on the aspects of biology of the Stethorus vagans, an Australian ladybird that feeds on all stages of two-spotted mite, Tetranychus urticae. Aspects of the biology of S. vagans were studied in the laboratory at constant and fluctuating temperatures. They regularly fed on all stages of T. urticae and there was no significant difference in male and female longevity at different temperatures. For field studies potted French bean plants infested with T. urticae were exposed in the field. Adult S. vagans was found to consume a range of alternative prey if the primary host was not available, but only one of the alternative hosts had the potential to support reproduction. Time partitioning behaviour and prey consumption rates were assessed, and how S. vagans located their prey was investigated. S. vagans exhibited many of the attributes of an effective biological control agent such as high reproductive level, location of prey at low levels, reproduction at low densities, and ability to feed on alternative hosts. It is concluded that S. vagans has a number of characteristics likely make them useful as a natural enemy of T. urticae
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Araujo, Leonardo Augusto Luvison. "A racionalidade genética no pensamento evolutivo." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/131948.
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A hereditariedade e a variação biológica são centrais para a evolução biológica. Apesar das diferentes abordagens sobre esse tema, sempre se mostra recorrente no discurso de cientistas, filósofos, historiadores e sociólogos da ciência a problematização do genecentrismo. Desse modo, uma questão relevante é entender o lugar do genecentrismo no pensamento evolutivo - é preciso perguntar como e por que esse tema tem sido problematizado de uma determinada maneira. Essa dissertação tem como objetivo principal, portanto, procurar as condições históricas que possibilitaram a organização do genecentrismo no pensamento evolutivo. A principal ideia defendida nesse estudo é de que a constituição do genecentrismo, e seu lugar central na teoria evolutiva, foram possibilitados pela emergência da racionalidade genética e pela construção de uma identidade genética intrínseca no início do século XX. A partir de evidências históricas, defendo também que a emergência da racionalidade genética permitiu enunciar muitas proposições novas, formando saberes e produzindo discursos, como a demonstração da seleção natural e uma síntese teórica da evolução biológica. Mas também a partir dela se operou “constrições” no conhecimento evolutivo, como a exclusão da Embriologia e a diminuição da importância de fatores ontogenéticos e ambientais.Heredity and variation are central focus of evolutionary studies. Despite the different approaches to heredity and evolution, the gene-centered version of evolution is a central theme in the discourse of philosophers, historians and sociologists of science. Thereby, my aim here is to understand the place of gene-centered view in the evolutionary thought and to trace the historical conditions of possibility which set up this discourse. The main idea of this dissertation is that the origin of gene-centered view of evolution was made possible by the emergence of genetic rationality and the creation of ‘genetic identity’ at the turn of the twentieth century. Historical evidence is presented to support that the emergence of genetic rationality allowed new propositions to be made, forming knowledge and producing discourse in the evolutionary theory, as the demonstration of natural selection and a theoretical synthesis. But also from the genetic rationality there are effects of “evolutionary constriction", as the exclusion of Embryology from the Evolutionary Synthesis and the decrease importance of ontogenetic and environmental factors.
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Hache, Jean. "Vers la prévention et l'anticipation dans la pratique médicale : réflexions sur l'épistémologie des biomarqueurs dans le cas de la maladie d'Alzheimer." Thesis, Paris 1, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018PA01H204/document.
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Cette thèse développe une réflexion épistémologique autour de la notion de biomarqueurs dans le cas de la maladie d’Alzheimer. Elle est centrée sur le transfert des connaissances du domaine de la biologie à celui de la pratique médicale et clinique, avec une attention particulière aux techniques de diagnostic précoce et aux Big Data. La maladie d’Alzheimer présente une temporalité particulière, son apparition étant insidieuse et sa phase asymptomatique longue. Elle se différencie des cancers en ne se prêtant pas à l’analyse génomique de cellules spécifiques, et permet ainsi d’aborder différemment le statut épistémique des biomarqueurs. Le biomarqueur (que ce soit une molécule, un réseau d’interactions, voire un algorithme), est porteur d’information sans pour autant établir un lien de causalité directe avec la maladie. C’est essentiellement un indice et non la représentation de la condition réelle d’un sujet ; c’est ensuite un objet entouré d’incertitude ; c’est enfin un objet dont la maîtrise n’est pas totale, un objet qui n’est jamais complètement donné. Enfin, les relations entre le biomarqueur et le milieu extérieur font partie intégrante de son fonctionnement. Les biomarqueurs sont essentiels dans la transformation des pratiques médicales vers l’anticipation et le suivi de l’évolution de la condition d’un sujet. En mettant en évidence des éléments transformant des facteurs de risque en une pathologie, les biomarqueurs invitent chacun à se surveiller et permettent un accompagnement des personnes dans une situation où elles n’ont encore aucun signe clinique d’une maladie évolutiveThis dissertation develops epistemological reflections on the notion of biomarkers in the case of Alzheimer’s disease. It focuses on the challenge posed by the transfer of knowledge from the field of biology to medical and clinical practices, with a special attention to the techniques of early diagnosis and especially the role of Big Data. Alzheimer's disease presents a particular temporality, its appearance being insidious with a long asymptomatic phase. It differs from cancer by not being amenable to genomic analysis of specific cells, and thus allows a different approach to the epistemic status of biomarkers. The biomarker whether it be a molecule, network of interactions, or even an algorithm, sheds light on the disease in the absence of any direct causal links between the biomarker and the disease. It is primarily an indicator rather than the representation of a body condition. As a consequence, it is always surrounded by uncertainty and never fully mastered, nor fully given. The biomarker is an object whose relations with the environment are an integral part of its functioning. Biomarkers are essential in transforming medical practices towards anticipating and monitoring the evolution of a subject's health condition. By highlighting elements that transform risk factors into a pathology, biomarkers invite everyone to monitor themselves and make it possible to support people well ahead of the appearance of clinical signs of an evolving disease
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Racovski, T. "Evolutionary novelty : a philosophical and historical investigation." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/35377.
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Evolutionary novelty, the origin of new characters such as the turtle shell or the flower, is a fundamental problem for an evolutionary view of life. Accordingly, it is a central research topic in contemporary biology involving input from several biological disciplines and explanations at several levels of organization. As such it raises questions relative to scientific collaboration and multi-level explanations. Novelty is also involved in theoretical debates in evolutionary biology. It has been appropriated by evo-devo, a scientific synthesis linking research on evolution and development. Thanks to its focus on development, evo-devo claims to explain the mechanistic origin of novelties as new forms, while the Modern Synthesis can only provide statistical explanation of evolutionary change. The origin of an evolutionary novelty is a historical emergence of a new character involving form and function. I focus on three neglected dimensions of the problem of novelty, the functional-historical approach to the problem, research on novelty in the Modern Synthesis era and novelty in plants. I compare the evo-devo approach to novelty to a functional-historical approach of novelty. I focus on its origin in Darwin and its presence in the Modern Synthesis. The comparison of the two approaches reveals distance between conceptual frameworks and proximity in explanatory practices. This is partly related to unwarranted conceptual opposition. In particular, I list several ways of distinguishing novelty and adaptation, some of which are not conceptually sound. I then focus on the relation between novelty and adaptation in the Modern Synthesis era, and on the relation of novelty to other fundamental biological problems (speciation, origin of higher taxa, complexity). Pushing this approach further, I challenge the view that the Modern Synthesis excluded development and reached a hardened consensus. Finally, I analyse how Günter Wagner's developmental theory of novelty applies to novelties in plant.
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Karapa, Eleni. "Bio-membranes : a bio-logical approach to architecture." Virtual Press, 1996. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1033631.
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Bio-membranes: A Biological Approach to Architecture The desire to introduce an area of study which can potentially inform the field of architecture on a theoretical as well as on a practical level, is the primary aim of this creative project. More specifically, the interest of this work is focused on the identification of useful processes deriving from the world of biology and their utilization in the world of architecture. The designation of an alternative path for perceiving and understanding processing and principles that may be of use in the reconfiguration of various architectural design applications is in quest. In search of a biological model that can potentially inform the field of architecture and provide enough feedback concerning the understanding of "processing" and "principles", biomembrane systems have been designated as the appropriate subject of study. The study and analysis of the structural and functional aspects of the bio-membranes as well as the extraction of useful principles that are derived from this study consist the first part of this work. The second part describes the implementation of these principles into various architectural applications while it challenges existing paradigms and introduces new ways of looking into the realm of architectural theory.Department of Architecture
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Ujeda, Louis. "Etude philosophique de la biologie de synthèse : pour une analyse de la complexité des biotechnologies en société." Thesis, Paris Est, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016PESC0040/document.
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La biologie de synthèse (BS) est une discipline scientifique qui se propose d'être à la biologie ce que la chimie synthétique est à la chimie analytique. La BS adopte des approches de l'ingénierie et vise à élaborer des systèmes biologiques fonctionnels réalisant des tâches techniques. Elle peut donc être qualifiée de technoscience, au sens où la technique est pour elle un débouché de ses recherches mais également une condition de ses découvertes. La BS ne se laisse cependant pas réduire à sa dimension intentionnelle. Elle est une discipline complexe, tant quant à son épistémologie qu'à son ontologie. Son inscription dans la société n'est pas moins complexe : les technosciences mettent toujours en jeu un grand nombre de dimensions de notre existence collective. Les enjeux éthiques de la BS sont donc majeurs, mais les crispations autour des nouvelles technologies rendent les débats difficiles, les positions se radicalisant entre utopies technophiles et dystopies technophobes.L'objectif de cette étude est de clarifier le contexte éthique, sans le simplifier, et d'apporter des éléments d'analyse des problèmes éthiques de la BS par-delà le simplisme rhétorique et le futurisme,qui minent les débats autour de cette technoscience. Il s'agit donc de se confronter à la complexité de la BS, de sa définition à son épistémologie et son ontologie, en passant par ses dimensions sociales et par le statut des êtres qu'elle produit. Les théories de W.V.O. Quine permettent d'éclairer les aspects épistémologiques et leurs conséquences ontologiques ; la philosophie des processus et des relations de Gilbert Simondon permet quant à elle de décrire la complexité des modes d'existence des êtres biosynthétiques entre contraintes techniques et devenir biologiqueSynthetic biology (SB) is a scientific field that aims at being to biology what syntheticchemistry is to analytic chemistry. SB adopts engineering approaches in order to develop functionalbiological systems carrying out technical tasks. It can thus be described as a technoscience, in the sensethat technic is both an outlet for its research and a material condition for its discoveries.However, SB does not let itself be reduced to that intentional dimension. It is a complexdiscipline, considering both its epistemology and its ontology. How SB is inscribed in society is notless complex: technosciences always involve several dimensions of our collective existence. SB's ethicalissues are thus crucial, but tensions about new technologies make the debates difficult, the positionsbeing often split between technophilic utopias and technophobic dystopias.The objective of this study is to clarify the ethical context without simplifying it, and to giveelements of analysis of the ethical problems in SB beyond the rhetorical simplism and the futurismthat undermine the debates about SB. SB's complexity must thus be confronted, from its definition toits epistemology and ontology, and through its social dimensions as well as the status of the beings itproduces. The theories of W.V.O. Quine enable the understanding of the epistemological aspects andtheir ontological consequences; the process and relations philosophy of Gilbert Simondon enables thedescription of the modes of existence of biosynthetic beings caught between their technical constraintsand their biological development
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Molter, Daniel J. "Species, Units of Evolution, and Secondary Substance." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1307386681.
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Howpage, Daya. "Pollination biology of kiwifruit : influence of honey bees, Apis mellifera L, pollen parents and pistil structure." Thesis, Richmond, N.S.W. : Centre for Horticulture and Plant Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 1999. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/338.
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The importance of European honey bees in improving fruit set, yield and fruit weight of kiwifruit on the central east coast of Australia was investigated. Field investigations were carried out using different bee saturations and different types of male pollen parents. These investigations confirmed the importance of honey bees in kiwifruit fruit set, yield and fruit weight. However, the results suggested that increasing bee activity alone may not increase pollination of kiwifruit by honey bees. Many factors need to be understood before introducing bees into the orchard. Bees were more effective during the early part of the flowering period, and bee activity varied according to the sex of the vine, planting design and the time of day. The type of male pollen parents also influenced fruit size and quality. Flowers pollinated by different pollen parents were assessed for pollen tube growth and histochemical changes. The resulting fruit were also examined for weight and seed numbers. Honey bees play the major role in the size and yield of kiwifruit, but the design of male vines, their age and type of male pollen may also contribute. The kiwifruit pistil also possesses important features that can be considered as adaptations to insect pollination.
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Akbay, Gokhan. "Function, Reduction And Normativity." Master's thesis, METU, 2010. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12611917/index.pdf.
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Normativity of biological functions create a serious obstacle against the reduction of functional biology into molecular biology. Normativity of biological entities has two interconnected sources. One is the internal complexity and self organization demonstrated by the organism. The second source is external to the organism: Natural selection. An organism adapts to its environment by its internal autonomy. Species or populations adapt by natural selection. If these two sources of normativity can be reduced to statistical generalities achieved by theoretical models, reductionism will prevail.
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Almeida, Hermano José Falcone de. "Agressividade e violência em Hobbes e Rousseau : etologia, genes e ambiente." Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 2010. http://tede.biblioteca.ufpb.br:8080/handle/tede/5691.
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The primary objective of this study is to define aggression and violence in human beings. Studying aggression and violence philosophically demands a wide range of disciplines such as biology, sociology, and neuroscience as concepts migrating from the biological to the social aspect in order to achieve broad and deep knowledge of the theme. When relating to aggression, we focus on a biological, corporal, genetic and neurobiological dimension; while referring to violence, we address to an exclusively human dimension concerning the language, culture, and society symbols. The study was based on the researcher´s career as a juvenile psychiatrist and his everyday professional experiences with cases involving violence, bullying, psychological and sexual harassment which have affected individuals at that age. Philosophy and other sciences were taken as resources to help to get answers to the following questions: are aggression and violence part of human nature or human condition, or are they historical and social construction? Is there human nature biologically determined? Is it product of human sociogenesis? This is a bibliographic research starting with thoughts of philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rousseau to interact with biological sciences and then return to the two classics of the political philosophy attempting a further synthesis of the theme which incorporates the contributions of sciences. The study consisted of a critical, analytical and systematic reading of biological sciences focusing on etiology, genetics, and neuropsychiatry. The research aims to define and sort out concepts of violence and aggression by counting on the contribution of social sciences as well as some currents of psychoanalysis. It was guided by a mediation between two opposing trends: on the one hand, tending to adopt both concepts; on the other hand, tending to neglect biological conditionings and accept socialization as the only factor leading to violence. According to this perspective, we migrate between philosophy and science with empirical views that highlight the contribution of biology and neuropsychiatry to the study. The purpose of the study is to point out ways and sort out concepts not very well defined in order to determine what is essentially human in the scope of violence and aggression. The study is not expected to give determined answers, but it is believed to have made the topic clear, supporting the thesis that violence is part of human sociogenesis and that it is exclusive to human species and not entirely determined by biological factors, being possibly controlled and administered by the society. Aggression, in turn, is part of our biological inheritance, and its main function is the species survival. Violence is a human product that comprises the society. It has positive aspects as it limits and develops social cohesion; it has negative aspects as it causes human exploitation, generates inequality, and leads to physical and psychological damages restricting freedom. As human production, violence can be both the cause of social problems and their solution.
O estudo tem como objetivo definir agressividade e violência na espécie humana. Estudar a agressividade e a violência do ponto de vista filosófico é uma tarefa que requer a colaboração de várias disciplinas como a biologia, a sociologia e as neurociências, para alcançar a abrangência e a profundidade que o tema merece, porque são conceitos que transitam do biológico ao social. Ao falar de agressividade, entra-se numa dimensão biológica, corporal, genética e neurobiológica enquanto que, ao falar de violência entra-se numa dimensão exclusivamente humana, que remete à linguagem, à cultura e aos símbolos da sociedade. A pesquisa foi motivada pelo fato do pesquisador ser psiquiatra da infância e adolescência e ter vivido em seu cotidiano profissional situações de violência, bullying, abuso sexual e psicológico que atingem esta faixa etária. Esta sua experiência o motivou para procurar na filosofia e nas ciências a resposta a perguntas tais como: a agressividade e a violência fazem parte da natureza ou da condição humana ou são uma construção histórica e social? Existe uma natureza humana determinada biologicamente ou ela é produto da sociogênese humana? Nesse contexto trata-se de uma pesquisa de caráter bibliográfico, que parte do pensamento dos filósofos Thomas Hobbes e Jean-Jacques Rousseau, para dialogar com as ciências biológicas e posteriormente retornar aos dois clássicos da filosofia política e tentar uma nova síntese sobre o assunto que incorpore as contribuições da ciência. O pesquisador buscou fazer uma leitura crítica, analítica e sistemática das ciências biológicas, com relevo para a etologia, a genética e a neuropsiquiatria. A pesquisa pretende definir e separar melhor os conceitos de violência e agressividade, contando com a contribuição das ciências sociais e de algumas correntes da psicanálise. A pesquisa se orientou por uma mediação entre duas tendências opostas: de um lado a tendência à naturalização de ambos os conceitos; do outro, uma negação dos condicionamentos biológicos e o reconhecimento da socialização como único fator que acarreta a violência. Dentro desta perspectiva, não se deixa de transitar entre a filosofia e a ciência, com momentos de empirismo que ressaltam a contribuição da biologia e da neuropsiquiatria para o estudo. O objetivo é apontar caminhos e separar conceitos que não estão bem definidos, pois, assim sendo, pode-se delimitar o que é propriamente humano dentro da esfera da violência e da agressividade. Não pretende-se dar respostas definitivas, porém, acredita-se que o estudo trouxe mais clareza ao tema em questão, ao defender a tese de que a violência faz parte da sociogênese humana, sendo exclusiva de nossa espécie e não sendo totalmente determinada por fatores biológicos, ela pode ser controlada, administrada, pela sociedade. A agressividade faz parte de nossa herança biológica e tem como uma das principais funções a sobrevivência das espécies. A violência é produto humano, instaurando a sociedade. Tem seus aspectos positivos, quando coloca limites e faz funcionar a coesão social; ou aspectos negativos, quando instaura a exploração do homem, gera desigualdades e provoca danos físicos, psicológicos e de limitação de liberdade do outro. Como produção humana, a violência pode ser causa de males sociais, assim como a solução para esses males.
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Tham, Wilhelm. "Kraftens biologi : En läsning av Hegels ”Kraft och förstånd” utifrån Leibniz organiska världsbild." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Filosofi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-37472.
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This work seeks to trace the influence of G.W. Leibniz on G.W.F. Hegel and the chapter called ‘Force and the Understanding’ in his Phänomenologie des Geistes. Using Leibniz’s theory of forces developed in texts such as Specimen Dynamicum, in which Leibniz argues against the Cartesians in favour of a ‘dynamic’ view on substances, it is here argued that the notion of biological life is of crucial importance for understanding Hegel’s transition from Consciousness to Self-Consciousness at the end of ‘Force and the Understanding’. For Leibniz, force is posited as that which gives unity to the monad, and this by functioning as their inner source of activity. This infusion of activity into the monad gives rise both to the physical world of bodies, as well as to the mental world of consciousnesses. Leibniz also sees force in direct analogy with biological life, as they share one characteristic feature, namely the capacity for ‘perception’ and ‘desire’. Consequently, organic life is for Leibniz what is most real in the world, uniting all bodies with a conscious soul. This move, I argue, is essential for understanding Hegel in ‘Force and the Understanding. More specifically, when Hegel’s consciousness discovers that, through the dialectic of force and law, organic life has become its new object, it also realizes that its faculty of the Understanding [Verstand] is related to its very own biological nature. The outer world of appearance, consciousness realizes, is thereby intimately connected to the inner of things, the so called supersensible world. Hegel thus regards consciousness of biological life as a sort of bridge that unites the Understanding with the concept, or rather, unites internal thinking with the outside world. This gives rise to Consciousness’ awareness of its own thinking, which is equivalent to it becoming a Self-consciousness.
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SERRELLI, EMANUELE. "Adaptive landscapes: a case study of metaphors, models, and synthesis in evolutionary biology." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/19338.
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This dissertation brings a contribution to the philosophical debate on adaptive landscapes, an influent "model" or "metaphor" in evolutionary biology. Some elements of innovation are: the distinction between native and migrant metaphor; a processual and communicational idea on what the Modern Synthesis was, and on what role a metaphor could have played in it; a view (taken by Richard Lewontin) of the disunity and theoretical structure of population genetics; the distinction between “adaptive surfaces” (mainly metaphors) and “combination spaces”, two terms normally conflated in the word “landscape”; an analysis of what bridges (including heuristics) may be cast between equations of gene frequency and the genotype space that, due to its huge dimensionality, cannot be handled by mathematics; a specified vocabulary to be used to clear the adaptive landscapes debate, accompanied by a plea in favor of a pragmatic approach - for example, the plurality of available notions of model forces us to choose one notion and see where it brings, otherwise we get stuck in confused, endless debates; an updated analytical comment of recent landscapes - Dobzhansky, Simpson, Dawkins but also the proliferation of combination spaces used in evolutionary biology to address a great variety of problems; the vision (got by Sergey Gavrilets) of a patchwork of tools finally making Mendelian population suitable model also for speciation; the exact position of holey landscapes in this patchwork, and the idea that scientists’s questions - like “how possibly” questions - matter in accessing this patchwork and in deciding “what explains” and “what describes” what in the world; the direct response to some mistakes Massimo Pigliucci made, I think, in his assessment of the adaptive landscape; an analysis of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis project at its present stage, and some reflections on the conditions that will allow such a project to give a fair treatment and a good position to tools from the past, like the adaptive landscapes.
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Corrêa, André Luis. "História e filosofia da biologia na formação inicial de professores : reflexões sobre o conceito de evolução biológica /." Bauru : [s.n.], 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/90944.
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Resumo: O conceito de evolução biológica atualmente constituir-se um eixo unificador do conhecimento biológico, pois fornece subsídios para compreensão da biologia atual e possibilita a interpretação dos múltiplos cenários que se formaram desde a origem da vida até os dias atuais. Os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Médio, também, orientam que a evolução biológica seja um conceito unficador da biologia, uma vez que, a compreensão da teoria evolutiva pode se interligar a outros conceitos biológicos e, assim, propiciar um ensino menos fragmentado. Diversas pesquisas apontam que os alunos tem dificuldades de compreensão ou aceitação do conceito de evolução. Uma das razões que contribuem para esta dificuldade de compreensão dos históricos presentes nos livros didáticos. Sendo assim, objetivou-se investigar como a inserção de uma discussão epistemológica sobre o conceito de evolução biológica pode contribuir para a aprendizagem de alunos de graduação de licenciatura em ciências biológicas. Para esta dissertação, os instrumentos de pesquisa utilizados foram os questionários, entrevistas semi-estruturadas, e discussões em grupos focais sobre os temas propostos, nas quais questões gerais foram focadas em três eixos: Evolução, História da Biologia e Ensino. Após análise coleta inicial foi possível criar categorias que permitiram agrupar resposta com padrões de explicação similares. Em seguida foram feitas intervenção didáticas, utilizando-se um material didático, organizado pelos autores desta pesquisa, contendo textos da História e Filosofia da Biologia sobre o conceito de evolução biológica. A partir da coleta final pôde-se, então, fazer uma análise comparativa dos dados iniciais, com a finalidade de se observar quais e como os objetivos propostos foram atendidos com a intervenção didática. Ao final desta pesquisa foi possível ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)Abstract: The concept of biological evolution currently consist in an unifying axis of the biological knowledge, therefore providing subsidies to comprehend actual biology and making possible interpretation of the multiple scenes that were constitute since the origin of life until the nowadays. The National Curricular Parameters of High School, also, suggest that the biological evolution is a unifying concept of biology, because, understanding of the evaluative theory can establish a connection with other biological concepts and thus promote a less fragmented education. Many researches point that the pupils have difficulties to understand or accept of evolution, being one of reasons that contribute to this difficulty of understanding of related concepts to the theory of evolution, appertain to the misconceptions present in textbooks. Wherefore, it was aimed to investigate as an insertion of an epistemological discussion on the concept of biological evolution can contribute to learning of students in pre-service teachers' education in biology's graduation. For this dissertation, it was used questionnaire, semi-structuralized interviews, and discussion in focal groups about considered subjects, which general questions had been concentrated in three axles: Evolution, History of Biology and Education. After initial analysis of the data, it was possible to create categories that allowed the group to give answers with similar explanations standard. After they were made dicactic intervention, using a didactic textbook organized by the authors of this research, it having texts of History and Philosophy of Biology about the concept of biological evolution. From the finals data a comparative analysis of the initial data could be made, with purpose of observing which and how they considered aims had been reached with the didactic intervention. In the end of this research it was possible ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
Orientador: Ana Maria de Andrade Caldeira
Coorientador: Fernanda Aparecida Meglhioratti
Banca: Vivian Leyser da Rosa
Banca: Jehud Bortolozzi
Mestre
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Hendricks, Jonathan. "Playing-With the World: Toy Story's Aesthetics and Metaphysics of Play." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6709.
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Pixar’s Toy Story (John Lassiter, 1995) is not just a story about toys and the children that play with them, but a demonstration of how we interact with the world. This thesis looks at the way in which both main children, Andy and Sid, interact with their toys and how this interaction is one that is structured by way of what Martin Heidegger calls “Enframing.” In this modality of playing, toys and other things and entities in the world, and the world itself, appear to the children as on-hand resources for use at any time and can be molded, as if plastic, to fit their needs. I problematize this way of interacting with the world by looking at not only it manifests in Toy Story, but also in the process of the film’s production, Silicon Valley aesthetics, our reliance upon plastics, neoliberal capital in light of the “1099 economy,” and ecological ramifications of these practices as seen in the ecological registers. Through these metaphysics, we seek to mold the world in accordance with human-centered interests as we play within the world. My thesis also turns to understand how metaphysics has transformed over time so that we can work towards bringing forth a different way of relating to the world that is sustainable, ethical, and one of care. I argue for an understanding of things in the world likened to an interconnected and interdependent network that we are always connected to, and in an “interplay” with. I conclude the project by arguing for a possible turn to the writings of Alfred North Whitehead, Henri Bergson, and other philosophers who work in process metaphysics for a possible reinvigoration of “apparatus theory,” which has lost favor with many film scholars since the 1970s/1980s. I argue that a process framework could provide fresh light on the cinematic apparatus in light of digital at-home streaming services, as well as work towards revealing stronger interlinked connections between media, economics, ecology, geopolitics, etc.
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Nascimento, Junior Antonio Fernandes. "Construção de estatutos de ciência para a biologia numa perspectiva histórico-filosófica : uma abordagem estruturante para seu ensino /." Bauru : [s.n.], 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/102048.
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Orientador: Marcelo Carbone CarneiroBanca: Fernanda Aparecida Meglhioratti
Banca: Jehud Bortolozzi
Banca: Marcos Rodrigues da Silva
Banca: Osmar Cavassan
Resumo: A tese foi desenvolvida buscando identificar os elementos necessários para uma compreensão da visão biológica sobre a natureza, numa perspectiva histórica e filosófica. Foi realizado um estudo teórico fundamentado no pensamento materialista dialético, visando identificar as principais questões que sustentam a biologia, considerando a sua história de construção e o olhar da filosofia da ciência sobre ela. Fez-se um levantamento documental principalmente nas fontes secundárias sobre a história e filosofia da biologia, também em algumas fontes primárias. Tendo realizada esta etapa, fez-se uma análise do conteúdo disciplinar dos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Médio (PCNEM), PCNEM+ e as Orientações Curriculares. O estudo foi direcionado por três questões: Quais são os elementos que caracterizam a biologia como tal ao longo da sua construção? Como estes elementos se caracterizam e se articulam? Os documentos curriculares oficiais consideram estes elementos na sua formulação? Como resultado, é trazida a história das ideias sobre os seres vivos na Antiguidade à Idade Média, sendo possível identificar algumas das questões que a biologia veio a se debruçar nos séculos seguintes. Em seguida, enfatiza-se a mudança ocorrida na visão de mundo na Idade Moderna que se opôs a Escolástica e suas implicações na organizaçãoda ciência que culminou na Revolução Científica. O século XIX marca o surgimento da biologia enquanto ciência. No início do século alguns ramos já se configuravam, porém ainda vinculados com a filosofia da natureza. Constitui-se a partir daí um olhar específico sobre a natureza considerando-se três teorias principais: teoria celular, teoria do equilíbrio interno e a teoria da seleção natural e origens das espécies. Duas perspectivas centrais se estruturaram, uma Mecanicista e outra Histórica, as quais sustentaram ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)
Abstract: The thesis was developed in order to identify the elements necessary for an understanding of biological vision about the nature, historical and philosophical perspective. We conducted a theoretical study based on dialectical materialist thought, to identify the key issues underpinning biology, considering its history of construction and look at the philosophy of science about it. There was a documentary survey mainly on secondary sources on the history and philosophy of biology, also in some primary sources. Having performed this step, there was a review of disciplinary content of National Curriculum of Secondary Education (PCNEM) PCNEM + and Curriculum guidelines. The study walked directed by three questions: What are the elements that characterize the biology as such throughout its construction? How these elements are characterized and articulate? Documents of curriculum consider these elements in its formulation? As a result, it brought the history of ideas on living in antiquity to the Middle Ages, it is possibile to identify some of the questions that biology came to look over the following centuries. Then, we seek to emphasize the change in worldview in the modern era who opposed scholasticism and its implications to the science that culminated in the Scientific Revolution. The nineteenth century marks the emergence of biology as a science. At the beginning of the century there were already some branches, but still tied to the philosophy of nature. It consists from there a specific look on nature by considering three main theories: cell theory, theory of internal equilibrium and the theory of natural selection and origin of species. Two central perspectives are structured, a Mechanistic and another Historic, which ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
Doutor
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Wasmuth, Sara. "Adapting to deficiency : addiction and the therapeutic power of occupation." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3883.
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Occupational therapy (OT) has been greatly influenced by the medical model, despite its origins as an alternative to medicine. OT practice that finds its theoretical basis in a medical model is criticized as limited in therapeutic value, and as lacking boundaries distinguishing OT from other disciplines. By advancing a philosophical anthropology (Gehlen) with biological evidence from detachment theory (Moss), this project identifies and illuminates the power and unique value of occupational therapy. Occupational participation, made possible by OT, is described as a tool for structuring human lives into manageable temporal components with varying degrees of motivation and social interconnection. The value of providing opportunities for occupational participation is described as analogous to the value of instincts in animals’ lives; occupations are seen as the core elements that drive and shape human experiences. The inadequacies of current definitions of and research on addiction are reviewed and, as an alternative to current approaches, an occupational model for understanding addiction is outlined. Addiction is described as an attempt to create a manageable life—that is, as an occupation, and the concept of focused flexibility is introduced to normatively distinguish ‘addiction-occupations’ from other, potentially more ‘healthy’ occupations. Health is discussed in relation to the proposed philosophical anthropological, social, and biological situation of human beings. Finally, a qualitative study is undertaken to examine whether an occupational model of addiction accurately describes the experiences of addicts, thereby warranting further research. Findings from this preliminary study suggest addiction is experienced as an occupation, and that the concept of addiction as an occupation should be further explored.
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Ronai, Isobel. "The genetic and mechanistic basis of worker sterility in the honey bee." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/17071.
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Worker sterility is a defining feature of social insects. However, the evolution of sterility is a conundrum because workers ‘altruistically’ forgo personal reproduction. To understand how worker sterility has evolved, it is important to identify both its genetic and mechanistic basis. In this thesis I utilise an ‘evo-devo’ framework to propose that the mechanistic basis of worker sterility can be conceptualised as ‘reproductive control points’ – specific mechanisms that reduce the reproductive capacity of workers. I provide empirical evidence for two control points in honey bee (Apis mellifera) workers. The first control point is when the queen’s pheromone triggers the abortion of adult honey bee workers’ oocytes at mid-oogenesis. I show that when workers are exposed to the queen’s pheromone, their germ cells degenerate midway through development. I also find that the candidate gene, Anarchy, is important for the mid-oogenesis control point where it causes increased programmed cell death activity in the ovaries of workers exposed to a queen. The second control point is the loss of ovarioles in adult honey bee workers. I show that the number of ovarioles declines as honey bee workers age, due to programmed cell death. The mechanism underlying all the reproductive control points, and therefore worker sterility, is likely to be programmed cell death. My thesis is therefore an important contribution to a mechanistic understanding of worker sterility, and provides insights into how this trait emerged from a solitary ancestor. In addition, this interdisciplinary thesis reflects upon my empirical research by examining how key molecular biology techniques are developed. I conclude that the techniques are developed in a characteristic, staged process with easily-identified common elements. The techniques of molecular biology lead to immense scientific progress and my examination of their development provides a compelling case for the importance of basic research.