History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences最新文献_第2页

Race realism goes both ways.

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-02-10 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00658-y

Rob DeSalle, Ian Tattersall

引用次数: 0

On the prospects of basal cognition research becoming fully evolutionary: promising avenues and cautionary notes.

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-02-06 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-025-00660-y

Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, Matthew Sims

{"title":"On the prospects of basal cognition research becoming fully evolutionary: promising avenues and cautionary notes.","authors":"Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, Matthew Sims","doi":"10.1007/s40656-025-00660-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-025-00660-y","url":null,"abstract":"The research programme 'basal cognition' adopts an evolutionary perspective for studying biological cognition. This entails investigating possible cognitive processes in 'simple'-often non-neuronal-organisms as a means to discover conserved mechanisms and adaptive capacities underwriting cognition in more complex (neuronal) organisms. However, by pulling in the opposite direction of a tradition that views cognition as something that is unique to neuronal organisms, basal cognition has been met with a fair amount of scepticism by philosophers and scientists. The very idea of approaching cognition by way of investigating the behaviour and underlying mechanisms in, say, bacteria, has been seen as preposterous and harmful to both cognitive science and biology. This paper aims to temper such scepticism to a certain degree by drawing parallels with how the evolution of 'development,' another loaded concept that refers to a not-so-easily definable, contested bundle of phenomena, has been fruitfully approached in Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Evo-Devo). Through this comparison, we identify four promising features of the basal cognition approach. These features suggest that sweeping scepticism may be unwarranted. However, each of them comes with important epistemic cautionary notes that should not be disregarded. By presenting these twofold considerations as potential ways to integrate a fully evolutionary perspective into basal cognition, this paper seeks to provide clarity and direction for the advancement of this research programme.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"47 1","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11802611/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143257419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Empirical vitalism: observing an organism's formative power within an active and co-constitutive relation between subject and object.

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-01-24 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00649-z

Christoph J Hueck

{"title":"Empirical vitalism: observing an organism's formative power within an active and co-constitutive relation between subject and object.","authors":"Christoph J Hueck","doi":"10.1007/s40656-024-00649-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-024-00649-z","url":null,"abstract":"This article proposes an empirical approach to understanding the life of an organism that overcomes reductionist and dualist conceptions. The approach is based on Immanuel Kant's analysis of the cognitive conditions required for the recognition of an organism: the concept of teleology and the assumption of a formative power of self-generation. It is analyzed how these two criteria are applied in the cognition of a developing organism. Using the example of a developmental series of a plant leaf, an active and relational process between observer and developing organism is shown, within which the teleology and self-generating power of the organism can be empirically observed through the mental faculties of understanding and will. Furthermore, it is emphasized that, according to Kant, even physical objects are not readily given, but are actively constituted through the unification of sense perceptions with concepts. This Kantian mode of objectification facilitates cognition of the physical properties of an organism. It can be supplemented with a participatory and co-constitutive mode of realization, in which the teleologically organizing and self-generating power of the organism can become an object of empirical research. It is argued that the participatory mode also facilitates an expanded conception of nature that allows for the existence of living beings within it. Finally, an analogy to Goethe's approach to the living organism is highlighted. In summary, it is stated that it is possible to understand life by consciously participating in it.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"47 1","pages":"9"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11761778/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143034804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Were Huxley's social views constituted by his biological work, and vice versa? Progress, perfection, & social values in Julian Huxley's biological worldview. 赫胥黎的社会观点是由他的生物学工作构成的吗，反之亦然？朱利安·赫胥黎生物学世界观中的进步、完美与社会价值。

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-01-20 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00645-3

Alison K McConwell

引用次数: 0

Peter Adkins (ed.), Virginia Woolf and the Anthropocene, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2024. 彼得·阿德金斯（编），弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫和人类世，爱丁堡：爱丁堡大学出版社，2024年。

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-01-16 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00657-z

Pengfei Zhang

引用次数: 0

Does randomization assert the balance across trial arms? Revisiting Worrall's criticism. 随机化是否能保证各试验臂之间的平衡？重新审视 Worrall 的批评。

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-01-14 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00655-1

Mariusz Maziarz

{"title":"Does randomization assert the balance across trial arms? Revisiting Worrall's criticism.","authors":"Mariusz Maziarz","doi":"10.1007/s40656-024-00655-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-024-00655-1","url":null,"abstract":"We revisit John Worrall's old but still prominent argument against the view that randomization balances the impact of both known and unknown confounders across the treatment and control arms. We argue that his argument involving indefinitely many possible confounders is at odds with statistical theory as it (1) presumes that the purpose of randomized studies is obtaining perfect point estimates for which perfect balance is needed; (2) mistakes equalizing each confounder with the overall (average) impact of all confounders, and (3) assumes that the joint effect of an infinite series of confounders cannot be bounded. We defend the role of randomization in balancing the impact of confounders across the treatment and control arms by putting forward the statistical sense of the balance claim. It involves the following three commitments: (1) randomization balances confounders in expectancy, (2) for RCTs to deliver unbiased estimates of the causal effect (true average treatment effect), the balance in the average effect of all confounders and not balancing each confounder is sufficient, and (3) randomization allows for calculating the probability of deviating from the balance. The paper includes a review of how the balance claim has been understood so far and discusses recent arguments supporting randomization balancing the impact of confounders in expectancy and the crucial role of the average impact of all actual confounders, and shows how statistical analysis of RCTs conducted both at the design and analysis stage makes possible estimating the probabilities of deviating from the balance.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"47 1","pages":"6"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142985777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Hawks, Doves, and Perissodus microlepis. Undermining the selected effects theory of function. 鹰、鸽子和小鸽子（Perissodus microlepis）。破坏功能的选择效应理论。

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-01-14 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00642-6

Claudio Davini

{"title":"Hawks, Doves, and Perissodus microlepis. Undermining the selected effects theory of function.","authors":"Claudio Davini","doi":"10.1007/s40656-024-00642-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-024-00642-6","url":null,"abstract":"The selected effects theory is supposed to provide a fully naturalistic basis for statements about what biological traits or processes are for without appeal to final causes or intelligent design. On the selected effects theory, biologists are allowed to say, for instance, that hindwing eyespots on butterfly wings serve to deflect predators' attacks away from vital organs because a similar fitness-enhancing effect explains why eyespots themselves were favoured by natural selection and persisted in the population. This is known as the explanatory dimension of the selected effects theory. According to it, appealing to the fitness-enhancing effect of a certain trait or process is sufficient to explain its current presence in a population, namely, why it persisted and still exists in that population. In this paper, however, I will call such a claim into question, and I will do so by discussing a mathematical Hawk-Dove example and a real case scenario taken from evolutionary biology, that of Perissodus microlepis. These are scenarios in which the selective filter does not allow variants with the highest fitness at a certain moment to prevail over their available alternatives. In similar cases, I will argue, citing fitness-enhancing effects does not represent an adequate explanation of what happens in the population, undermining the explanatory dimension of the selected effects theory.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"47 1","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142980925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Listening to placebos: the contested lessons of antidepressants debates. 听安慰剂：抗抑郁药的争议教训。

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-01-09 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00656-0

Renata Prati

引用次数: 0

Can science help discover the nature of well-being? 科学能帮助我们发现幸福的本质吗？

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2025-01-09 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00653-3

Antonin Broi

引用次数: 0

Crystallizing techniques: sample preparations, technical knowledge, and the characterization of blood crystals, 1840-1909. 结晶技术：样品制备，技术知识，血液晶体的表征，1840-1909。

IF 1.6 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2024-12-17 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-024-00651-5

Dana Matthiessen

{"title":"Crystallizing techniques: sample preparations, technical knowledge, and the characterization of blood crystals, 1840-1909.","authors":"Dana Matthiessen","doi":"10.1007/s40656-024-00651-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-024-00651-5","url":null,"abstract":"Sample preparation is the process of altering a naturally occurring object into a representative form that is amenable to scientific inquiry. Preparation is an important preliminary to data collection, ubiquitous in the life sciences and elsewhere, yet relatively neglected in historical and philosophical literature. This paper presents a detailed historical case study involving the preparation and study of blood crystals in the nineteenth century. The case is used to highlight significant features of preparation, which aid our understanding of the epistemology of sciences in which preparations play an important role. First, it shows the role of technical knowledge in efforts to characterize a scientific phenomenon or object of interest. Especially in early stages of characterization, scientists improve their understanding of what they are preparing by better understanding their preparation procedures. Second, this case contributes to recent views of characterization as a relatively autonomous domain of scientific activity. It shows how preparation functions as a site for integrating different experimental methods, and the difficulties that ensue. In light of these considerations, the case shows how characterization is capable of shaping or constraining explanatory pursuits as much as it is guided by them.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"47 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142848580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0