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A challenge to existing Newtonian and Darwinian paradigms, Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective demonstrates that a theoretically reshaped science of ecology, better suited to portraying the dynamics of the natural world, can be a more effective means of ensuring its health.
It has been said that new discoveries and developments in the human, social, and natural sciences hang “in the air” (Bowler, 1983; 2008) prior to their consummation. While neo-Darwinist biology has been powerfully served by its mechanistic metaphysic and a reductionist methodology in which living organisms are considered machines, many of the chapters in this volume place this paradigm into question. Pairing scientists and philosophers together, this volume explores what might be termed “the New Frontiers” of biology, namely contemporary areas of research that appear to call an updating, a supplementation, or a relaxation of some of the main tenets of the Modern Synthesis. Such areas...
A vision for realizing the promise of integral ecology and putting it into practice. In his landmark encyclical on care for creation, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis popularized the idea of integral ecology by connecting contemporary ecological concerns and church teachings on creation addressed by Catholic Social Thought. In Learning the Language of Creation, Franciscan Sister Damien Marie Savino, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, frames integral ecology as a pilgrimage guided by a process of listening and learning the language of creation. In this book, she offers a new way of thinking about creation, human beings, and the relationship between them to realize the promise of integral ecology put into practice. The Enacting Catholic Social Tradition series is dedicated to the systematic application of Catholic Social Teaching to real-world problems and issues. Written for both academics and pastoral practitioners who want to draw on and learn more about the rich resources of Catholic Social Tradition for the practical work of justice, the series aims to strengthen the capacity of the church to respond lovingly and well to the demands of the Gospel.
Bernard A. Lietaer (1942 - 2019) was active worldwide as a financial expert. He advised companies, governments and NGOs. In addition, he presented his ideas and concepts to a broad public in numerous books, essays and interviews. He also taught at various international universities. After his success as a senior executive of the Belgian Central Bank and as manager of a hedge fund, he increased his commitment to complementary currencies and currency systems. In this field, he is considered a key innovator, particularly since the 1980s, and is considered to be one of the key innovators in the field, especially since the crypto-currencies of today. This book (Volume I), Translation of the origi...
Evolution, Order and Complexity reflects topical interest in the relationship between the social and natural worlds. It represents the cutting edge of current thinking which challenges the natural/social dichotomy thesis by showing how the application of ideas which derive from biology can be applied and offer insight into the social realm. This is done by introducing the general system theory to the methodological debate on the relation of human and natural sciences.
A collegiate course in philosophy emphasizing material and mechanical foundations for the creation of the world shook Robert E. Ulanowicz's youthful faith to its core. Having difficulty accepting a purely secular and meaningless worldview, Ulanowicz persisted in searching for clues to give meaning to the nature of the cosmos and the evolution of life as we know it. Reaching adulthood in the midst of his career in ecology, his work with networks of connected living processes convinced him that the importance of processes eclipses the subsidiary role that classical thermodynamics had assigned to them. Rather, Ulanowicz discovered what he considers the origins of phenomena that had been conside...
Over many centuries, chemists (and their alchemical predecessors) evolved a sophisticated array of concepts and methods that yield reliable understanding when applied to systems of complexity intermediate between those generally considered by physicists, at one extreme, and biologists, at the other. Chemical problems can be chosen so that quantitative modelling can be used fruitfully, while also displaying some of the intriguing features typical of more complex cases. Papers in this volume address relations between macroscopic and microscopic descripion; essential roles of visualization and representation in chemical understanding; historical questions involving chemical concepts, impacts of chemical ideas on wider cultural concerns; and relationships between contemporary chemistry and other sciences. The authors demonstrate, assert or tacitly assume that chemical explanation is functionally autonomous. This volume should be of interest not only to professional chmists and philosophers, but also to workers in medicine, psychology and other fields in which relationships between explanations based on diverse levels of description and investigation are important.
Contemporary scholarship has given rise to several modes of understanding biophysical and human nature, each entangled with related notions of science and religion. Envisioning Nature, Science, and Religion represents the culmination of three years of collaboration by an international group of fourteen natural scientists, social scientists, humanists, and theologians. The result is an intellectually stimulating volume that explores how the ideas of nature pertain to science and religion. Editor James D. Proctor has gathered sixteen in-depth essays, each examining and comparing five central metaphors or "visions" of biophysical and human nature. These visions are evolutionary nature, emergent...
"What in the ever-loving blue-eyed world do these [U1ano wicz's] innocuous comments on thermodynamics have to do with ecology!" Anonymous manuscript reviewer The American Naturalist, 1979 "The germ of the idea grows very slowly into something recognizable. It may all start with the mere desire to have an idea in the first place. " Walt Kelly Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo, 1959 "It all seems extremely interesting, but for the life of me it sounds as if you pulled it out of the air," my good friend Ray Lassiter exclaimed to me after enduring about 20 minutes of my enthusiasm for the newly formu lated concept of "ascendency" in ecosystems. "It wasn't," I replied, "but it would take ...