Journal of Big History最新文献

{"title":"The Tree of Knowledge System: A New Map for Big History","authors":"G. Henriques, Joseph H Michalski, S. Quackenbush, W. Schmidt","doi":"10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3410","url":null,"abstract":"This article summarizes the Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System (Henriques, 2003; 2011), and compares and contrasts its depiction of cosmic evolution as four “dimensions of existence” (i.e., Matter, Life, Mind and Culture) with Big History’s eight thresholds of complexity. Both systems share the concern with the current fragmentation in academic knowledge and advocate for a more consilient and integrative vision that places the disciplines in coherent relationship to each other, and both views argue that such efforts are needed to advance wise decision making in the context of the accelerating rate of change. The major differences between the two perspectives are found in how the ToK conceptualizes the different dimensions of existence. Following Matter, the dimensions of Life, Mind and Culture are seen as emerging as a function of different semiotic or information processing systems that give rise to strongly emergent properties. In addition, given its emphasis on psychology and the mental dimension of existence, the ToK highlights some aspects of cosmic evolution that have not been featured prominently in most models of BH. The article ultimately suggests that there is potential for a fruitful synergy between the historical emphasis of BH with the more psychological focus of the ToK System. Correspondence | Gregg Henriques, henriqgx@jmu.edu; Joseph Michalski, jmichal2@uwo.ca; Steven Quackenbush, steven.quackenbush@maine.edu; Waldemar Schmidt, kokopelli@ccgmail.net Citation | Henriques, G., Michalski, J., Quackenbush, S., Schmidt, W., (2019) The Tree of Knowledge System: A New Map for Big History. Journal of Big History, III(4); 1 17. DOI | https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3410 he Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System (Henriques, 2003; 2011) is an integrative approach to scientific and humanistic knowledge that shares much in common with the Big History movement (Christian, 2017), even though the two visions were conceived of and developed independently. Central to the ToK System is a series of diagrams that offer a pictographic representation of the “unfolding wave of behavior” that has emerged since the Big Bang and has continued through the present. Because the ToK System is a representation of cosmic evolution and emergence on the dimensions of time and complexity, it is appropriate to characterize it as a Big History (BH) view of the universe, albeit a unique one. Indeed, it can be considered an explicit map of what some scholars in Big History have called “The Great Matrix” (Grassie, 2018). More specifically, the ToK System offers a new, systematic emergent naturalistic metaphysics (Cahoone, 2013) that defines key ontic concepts (i.e., Matter, Life, Mind, and Culture), and specifies their relations to one another and scientific knowledge about them. Figure 1 depicts the primary ToK System diagram (Henriques, 2003), and corresponds it with the eight Big History Thresholds. As shown, the ToK characterizes the universe of behavior as consisting of four ","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131101721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Toward a Big History Interpretation of Religion","authors":"K. Baskin","doi":"10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3455","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3455","url":null,"abstract":"ntroduction How should students of Big History approach religion? It sounds like a simple question, but little about religion is simple, even defining the word, as Wilfred Cantrell Smith pointed out a half century ago. The word, he notes, had generated “a bewildering variety of definitions” (1991/1962: 17). Among the dozens of definitions and more-general descriptions, religion has been called a “childhood neurosis” (Freud, 1989/1927); an “opiate of the people” (Marx, 1844); a “by-product of the misfiring of several [brain] modules” (Dawkins, 2006: 209); “a meaningful, allpervasive order that embraces the world” (Assmann, 2001: 3); the source of moral behavior (Norenzyan, 2013; Stark, 2011); and a “disease of the human mind” (Russell, 1936). To add to the confusion, nearly all these descriptions seem valid from their author’s points of view. However, if most of these descriptions are valid, then the really interesting question is: Can one gather all these fragments of the concept we call “religion” into a coherent, scientifically valid schema? That’s the task I want to begin in this essay. Before I do, however, it’s important to take a look at two key problems that have made it so difficult to avoid this fragmentation of and confusion about religion as a concept. First, the dominant Western intellectual model of religion has taught scholars to think of religion in ways that are significantly different from the way people in other times and places have. Consider just three elements:","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124644018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Marine Resources and Prehistoric Adaptations: A Review of Trekking the Shore","authors":"B. Wood","doi":"10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3466","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3466","url":null,"abstract":"n the premier number of Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology, Erlandson and Fitzpatrick (2006) note that coastal, maritime, and island environments were long considered “relatively peripheral” for the study of human prehistory. Lifeways study was biased toward “hunting of large land mammals” as primary and “agriculture . . . at the root of all human civilization.” But recent studies have shown such coastal and marine environments are “increasingly relevant to a variety of important anthropological and historical topics,” including the “antiquity of coastal adaptations and maritime migrations” and “the development of specialized maritime technologies and capabilities.” Deacon and Deacon (1999), for instance have pointed to extensive use of maritime food resources in South Africa during the early emergence of Homo sapiens (c. 200,000 BCE), while several studies have explored maritime navigation (Clark 1991, Irwin 1992, Howe 2003) that made possible migrations from Island Southeast Asia to the most remote areas of Oceania. Given increased attention to marine resources and evidence of prehistoric migration along continental margins, the time was right for Trekking the Shore: Changing Coastlines and the Antiquity of Coastal Settlement (2011), a collection of twenty studies by forty anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, botanists, geographers, and field specialists. Ground was prepared for the volume by two conference symposia (2006, 2008). Their emphases include coastal resources in human evolution, the Marine Resources and Prehistoric Adaptations: A Review of Trekking the Shore Barry Wood University of Houston","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"53 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133529247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Star-Galaxy Era in Terms of Big History and Universal Evolution","authors":"L. Grinin, A. Grinin","doi":"10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3444","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3444","url":null,"abstract":"The present article attempts at combining Big History potential with the potential of Evolutionary Studies. It does not only analyze the history of the Cosmos. It studies similarities between evolutionary laws, principles, and mechanisms at various levels and phases of Big History. Such an approach opens up some new perspectives for our understanding of evolution and Big History, their driving forces, vectors, and trends; it creates a consolidated field for interdisciplinary research. Of special importance is the point that many principles, patterns, regularities, and rules of evolution, which we tend to find relevant only for the biological and social levels of evolution, may be also applied to the cosmic phase of evolution. This is not so surpris-ing, since the formation, life-cycle and renewal of stars, galaxies, as well as other celestial bodies is the longest evolutionary process that took place in the Universe. Correspondence | Leonid E. Grinin, leonid.grinin@gmail.com Citation | Grinin, L. (2019) The Star-Galaxy Era in Terms of Big History and Universal Evolution. Journal of Big History, III(4); 99 122. DOI | https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3444","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124364538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mythopoetic imagination as a source of critique and reconstruction: alternative storylines about our place in cosmos","authors":"Heikki Patomäki","doi":"10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3433","url":null,"abstract":"Temporal reflexivity requires that we recognize consciousness, society and history as mythopoetically constituted. Mythopoetic imagination can also be a means of critique of the prevailing myths. In complex pluralist societies, there are hegemonic struggles over constitutive myths, shaping both our explanatory accounts of the past and scenarios about possible futures. A widespread myth of contemporary liberal-capitalist societies comprises three temporal tiers: deep cosmic scepticism; various ethical and political lessons drawn from, and theories related to, this scepticism; and the capacity of technology and economic growth to bring us some comfort and enjoyment in our short lives. An alternative cosmic storyline centres on the prospects of life and culture, rather than death, and on our common evolvement also through collective learning. In this paper, I examine possible interpretations of the basic Big History (BH) narrative in view of these two ideal-typical storylines. How is BH positioned and positioning itself in relation to the main scientific myths of the 21st century? I assess the plausibility of BH in terms of both logos and mythos; and criticising BH’s ambiguities, I argue in favour of the life-oriented storyline.","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128335217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beachcombing and Coastal Settlement: The Long Migration from South Africa to Patagonia — The Greatest Journey Ever Made","authors":"B. Wood","doi":"10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3422","url":null,"abstract":"Although studies of prehistoric human migration now run into the hundreds, a single, chronological narrative of the peopling of the planet has not yet been presented, Most studies have been produced by specialists of a region. The need for a specific migration narrative—highlighting a primary migration route—is desirable for a coherent big-history understanding of how prehistoric Homo sapiens peopled the planet. Assembling the existing research, we follow the primary migration route from South Africa to Patagonia—a coastal trek up the coast of Africa, along the shores of the Indian Ocean followed by a circum-oceanic trek around the entire Pacific Ocean., the whole journey, with settlements established along the way, occurring over a period of 60,000 up to 115,000 years. From South Africa, now recognized as the refuge of early Homo sapiens, migration can be traced through human fossils, cave occupations, camp and work sites, shell middens, animal remains, and tool remnants. To these, genetics has added the identification of genetic markers for more accurate route determination. This coastal migration route incorporates recent archeological reassessments that have confirmed (1) the “Southern Dispersal” route out of Africa to coastal South Asia; (2) a 10,000 to 15,000 thousand year “Beringian Standstill” during the last glacial maximum; and (3) a primary “Coastal Route” down the west coast of the Americas. From this primary coastal migration route, hundreds of rivers provide resource-rich entrances into continental interiors while ocean reaches beckoned to the adventurous, thus clarifying the earliest stages of the peopling of the Earth. Correspondence | Barry Wood, barrywood1940@yahoo.com Citation | Wood, B. (2019) Beachcombing and Coastal Settlement: The Long Migration from South Africa to Patagonia — The Greatest Journey Ever Made. Journal of Big History, III(4); 19 46. DOI | https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i4.3422 The coastal route would be a sort of prehistoric superhighway, allowing a high degree of mobility without requiring complex adaptations to new environments that would be necessary on an inland route. . . . because of the ease of movement afforded by the coast, the line of sandy highway circumnavigating the continents, this would allow relatively rapid migrations. No mountain ranges or great deserts to cross, no need to develop new toolkits or protective clothing, and no drastic fluctuations in food availability. – Spenser Wells, The Journey of Man (2002)","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132480363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Tajectory of Evolution and Its Implications for Humanity","authors":"J. Stewart","doi":"10.22339/JBH.V3I3.3380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/JBH.V3I3.3380","url":null,"abstract":"Does the Big History of life on Earth disclose a trajectory that has been driven by selection? If so, will the trajectory continue to apply into the future? This paper argues that such a trajectory exists, and examines some of its key implications. The most important consequence is that humanity can use the trajectory to guide how it evolves and adapts into the future. This is because the trajectory identifies a sequence of adaptations that will be favoured by selection. If humanity intentionally evolves its social systems and psychological capacities so that they follow the trajectory, humanity can avoid negative selection and instead survive and thrive indefinitely into the future. This would enable humanity to make a positive contribution to the future evolution of life in the universe. But it turns out that immediate selection will not drive the evolution of life on Earth further along this trajectory. Instead, intentional action by humanity is necessary. It is as if the evolution of life on any planet is a developmental process that has a very unusual characteristic: evolution will continue to develop successfully beyond a certain point only if it produces a sentient organism that: (i) awakens to the possibility it is embedded in a developing process; (ii) realizes that this developing process will continue successfully only if it chooses to intentionally drive the process forward; and (iii) commits to doing whatever is necessary to achieve this. On this planet, humanity is that sentient organism. The existence of such a key evolutionary role for humanity is capable of providing humanity with meaning and purpose in a larger scheme of things. For individuals who commit to driving the process forward, the nature of the trajectory has immediate consequences for what they should do with their lives, here and now. Correspondence | John E. Stewart, future.evolution@gmail.com Citation | Stewart, J. E. (2019) The Trajectory of Evolution and Its Implications for Humanity. Journal of Big History, III(3); 141 155. DOI | https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i3.3380","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133069936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cosmic Perspectives and the Myths We Need to Survive","authors":"C. Lineweaver","doi":"10.22339/JBH.V3I3.3350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/JBH.V3I3.3350","url":null,"abstract":"Big history can be defined a s t he a ttempt t o u nderstand t he i ntegrated h istory o f t he c osmos, E arth, l ife and humanity. Cosmic perspectives and biological evolution are the main scientific ingredients that can convert and broaden history into big history. The aim of this paper is to describe a dilemma that such a scientific, Darwinian big history must face: the inevitable incompatibility between an objective scientific s earch f or t ruth a nd an evolutionary compulsion for brains to harbor useful fictions — the myths we need to survive. Science supports both sides of this dilemma. New and improved cosmic perspectives can’t just be scientifically accurate. To be of use they must leave room for the myths we humans need to survive. But, what are those myths? I discuss and question whether the following ideas qualify as such myths: a belief in an objective meaning for human life, humanism/speciesism, human free will and stewardship of the Earth. Correspondence | Charles H. Lineweaver, charley.lineweaver@anu.edu.au Citation | Lineweaver, C. H. (2019) Cosmic Perspectives and the Myths We Need to Survive. Journal of Big History, III(3); 81 93. DOI | https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v3i3.3350","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114553502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Evolution of Earth Federation from a Cosmic Perspective","authors":"Christina Hamer","doi":"10.22339/JBH.V3I3.3311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/JBH.V3I3.3311","url":null,"abstract":"From a cosmic perspective, we are all citizens of the one small and lonely planet Earth, and we all face some major global challenges. Some of them may even threaten the future of our civilization, such as climate change and nuclear weapons, to name but two. These critical global problems need global solutions, and we need to work together to find solutions to them. Ideally, we need some form of Earth Federation, empowered to make binding laws and regulations to deal with these global issues. I will trace the history of the world federation concept, and discuss how it might be put into practice. Post-war efforts have always concentrated on reform of the United Nations, only to be stymied by the rigidity of the UN Charter. Meanwhile, Europe has shown the way, with the stage-by-stage evolution of the European Union, and has developed the basic principles upon which the Earth Federation should be based. I will discuss a possible alternative route to the goal, which follows the European example. A detailed discussion of a possible first step is discussed. It is suggested that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization be reformed to accept membership from democratic countries outside the North Atlantic area, to become a World Security Community of democratic nations. It could act as a strong right arm to the Security Council on the world stage. Such a community would form a natural starting point for the evolution over time of a genuine global parliament.","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123302298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Biological Overview Effect: Our Place in Nature","authors":"C. Lineweaver, A. Chopra","doi":"10.22339/JBH.V3I3.3360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22339/JBH.V3I3.3360","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While gazing at the Earth from orbit, some astronauts have described a cognitive shift known as the overview effect. Here we describe an analogous biological overview effect produced by looking at the tiny twig of humanity on the tree of life. We describe the increasingly precise phylogenetic tree of all life on Earth and how it shows us our place in nature. We discuss problems with this tree including the assumption of sexual isolation, purely vertical gene transmission and the dependence of LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) on the completeness of the tree. We compile and present the most concise taxonomic overview of the evolution of our lineage from Archaea to humans.","PeriodicalId":326067,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Big History","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129650272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}