The Charms of Nature: Darwin on Meaning and Value

I review George Levine’s provocative and highly original book Darwin Loves You. Levine, whose “home discipline” is English Literature, offers a compelling interpretation of Darwin’s works, evaluating their content and Darwin’s prose style to identify a distinctly Darwinian attitude toward nature as a source of meaning and value. Levine believes that Darwin exemplifies the capacity to feel “enchantment” about the natural world, suggesting that, if Darwin’s example were followed, a “Darwinian re-enchantment of the world” would be brought about. This would offer a secular, non-supernatural basis for purpose, meaning, and value. I conclude with a few critical remarks about the scope and cogency of Levine’s proposal.     

Wimsatt and the robustness family: Review of Wimsatt’s Re-engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings

This review of Wimsatt’s book “Re-engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings” focuses on analysing his use of robustness, a central theme in the book. I outline a family of three distinct conceptions of robustness that appear in the book, and look at the different roles they play. I briefly examine what underwrites robustness, and suggest that further work is needed to clarify both the structure of robustness and the relation between it various conceptions.     

Again,What the Philosophy of Biology is not

There are many things that philosophy of biology might be. But, given the existence of a professional philosophy of biology that is arguably a progressive research program and, as such, unrivaled, it makes sense to define philosophy of biology more narrowly than the totality of intersecting concerns biologists and philosophers (let alone other scholars) might have. The reasons for the success of the “new” philosophy of biology remain poorly understood. I reflect on what Dutch and Flemish, and, more generally, European philosophers of biology could do to improve the situation of their discipline locally, regionally, and internationally, paying particular attention to the lessons to be learned from the “Science Wars.” This paper grew out of my contribution to the symposium Philosophy of Biology in the Netherlands and Flanders organized by Thomas Reydon and Sabina Leonelli in Amsterdam in February 2004. It is a rather personal reaction to many of the opinions voiced in the quite heated atmosphere of the Symposium. My main concern is to convey an idea of what, according to me, is required to turn “our” philosophy of biology into a more successful enterprise than it currently is. This is motivated by a disconcerting discovery I made at the Symposium: Contrary to my expectations, a sensitivity for the sorts of things that make possible philosophy of biology of the best kind available today seems to be largely lacking in our part of the world. I wish to stress from the outset that although I will be quite polemical at times, this is always intended in the spirit of constructive dialogue.     

An ant’s eye view of culture: propagation of new traditions through triggering dormant behavioural patterns

We consider a previously unknown way of propagation of behavioural traditions in animal communities using hunting in ants as an example. We experimentally revealed that common litter dwelling ants Myrmica rubra effectively hunt jumping prey and the way the hunting behavioural pattern is distributed within ant colonies is rather sophisticated. Comparison of our results with those obtained on vertebrates enables us to suggest that “distributed social learning” plays an important role in spreading new traditions in animal communities: initial performances by a few carriers of an “at once and entirely” available behavioural pattern propagate this pattern among specimens which have only dormant “sketches” of it. Spread of these behaviours in populations is based on relatively simple forms of social learning such as social facilitation which underlies species’ predisposition to learn certain sequences of behavioural acts. To be triggered, carriers of dormant “sketches” of a relevant behavioural pattern should encounter performances of this pattern with sufficient frequency. We call this strategy triggering of dormant behavioural patterns. Integration of behaviour thus takes place not only at the individual level but at the population level as well.     

Separated at Birth: The Interlinked Origins of Darwin’s Unconscious Selection Concept and the Application of Sexual Selection to Race

This essay traces the interlinked origins of two concepts found in Charles Darwin’s writings: “unconscious selection,” and sexual selection as applied to humanity’s anatomical race distinctions. Unconscious selection constituted a significant elaboration of Darwin’s artificial selection analogy. As originally conceived in his theoretical notebooks, that analogy had focused exclusively on what Darwin later would call “methodical selection,” the calculated production of desired changes in domestic breeds. By contrast, unconscious selection produced its results unintentionally and at a much slower pace. Inspiration for this concept likely came from Darwin’s early reading of works on both animal breeding and physical ethnology. Texts in these fields described the slow and unplanned divergence of anatomical types, whether animal or human, under the guidance of contrasting ideals of physical perfection. These readings, it is argued, also led Darwin to his theory of sexual selection as applied to race, a theme he discussed mainly in his book The Descent of Man (1871). There Darwin described how the racial version of sexual selection operated on the same principle as unconscious selection. He thereby effectively reunited these kindred concepts.     

Agonistic and courtship behaviour patterns in the skink Chalcides viridanus (Fam. Scincidae) from Tenerife

There have been relatively few attempts to quantitatively describe behaviours in scincid lizards. Chalcides viridanus is a small body-sized skink endemic of Tenerife (Canary Islands). We describe and quantify 18 behaviour patterns (both social and agonistic) of this species, some of which have not been described before for other scincids. Video recordings of male–male, female–female, and male–female interactions were made under laboratory conditions, with controlled light–dark cycle and temperature. We describe several agonistic and courtship behaviour patterns. Within the first context, we detected a new agonistic behaviour for a scincid, “Snout to body”, that appeared at the beginning of agonistic sequences; it consisted of each animal placing its snout in contact with the other individual’s lateral side of the body. The amplitude of head movement during “Head bobbing” was lower than that described for many other lizard species. Agonistic behaviours were shown in intrasexual staged encounters both within males and females. The comparison of behaviour patterns of both types of intrasexual encounters showed that females were more active, exhibiting significantly higher frequencies of behaviour than males. Specifically, females showed the “Snout to body” pattern more frequently than males. In male–female encounters we detected courtship and copulation patterns only in April, when males performed “Bites” and “Snout to body” directed at females.     

Gender Victims and Cultural Borders: The Globalization of Prostitution in Italy

In this article I will try to analyse the transformation regarding the italian regulation of prostitution on the grounds of another issue, that is the building up of cultural borders for the definition of “national” and “european” gender identities. The creation of cultural borders allows to outline the differentiation traits between social groups, while escaping plurality and internal contradictions which on the other hand could only show continuity and vicinity traits. In my point of view, the italian current debate on prostitution is a discoursive process that produces a “western” pattern of relation between men and women, while referring internal tensions and contradictions to other cultures. The following analysis will use data and information coming from national official statistics on immigration, estimates on prostitutions and findings from national researchers on prostitution carried out by the research group called “Migration & Prostitutions” based at the Department of Sociology of the Padua University.     

Development of the hand and wrist bones in chimpanzees

Skeletal developmental of chimpanzees was studied cross-sectionally. By application of the TW2 method, we described the skeletal development of chimpanzees and compared their skeletal development with humans'. A development pattern of chimpanzees repeated accelerations and decelerations displaying “early-juvenile trough,” “pre-adolescent peak,” “mid-adolescent trough,” and “post-adolescent peak” in incremental curves. Sex differences in skeletal development are slower development in males during infant and early juvenile phases, and greater increment around the adolescent phase in males. Females are fully mature at younger ages than males, e.g. about one and a half years. In comparison with chimpanzees, humans have such characteristics as a longer slower period of juvenile development and a shorter spurt-like adolescent fast period which ends with full maturity.     

The Preface to Darwin’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Origin of Species</Emphasis>: The Curious History of the “Historical Sketch” *

Almost any modern reader’s first encounter with Darwin’s writing is likely to be the “Historical Sketch,” inserted by Darwin as a preface to an early edition of the Origin of Species, and having since then appeared as the preface to every edition after the second English edition. The Sketch was intended by him to serve as a short “history of opinion” on the species question before he presented his own theory in the Origin proper. But the provenance of the “Historical Sketch” is somewhat obscure. Some things are known about its production, such as when it first appeared and what changes were made to it between its first appearance in 1860 and its final form, for the fourth English edition, in 1866. But how it evolved in Darwin’s mind, why he wrote it at all, and what he thought he was accomplishing by prefacing it to the Origin remain questions that have not been carefully addressed in the scholarly literature on Darwin. I attempt to show that Darwin’s various statements about the “Historical Sketch,” made primarily to several of his correspondents between 1856 and 1860, are somewhat in conflict with one another, thus making problematic a satisfactory interpretation of how, when, and why the Sketch came to be. I also suggest some probable resolutions to the several difficulties. How Darwin came to settle on the title “Historical Sketch” for the Preface to the Origin is not certain, but a guess may be ventured. When he first submitted the text to Asa Gray in February 1860 he called it simply “Preface Contributed by the Author to this American Edition” (Burkhardt et al., eds., vol. 8, 1993, p. 572; the collected correspondence is hereafter cited as CCD). In fact he had thought of it as being properly called a Preface much earlier, perhaps as early as 1856, as will be seen in what follows. It came to be called “An Historical Sketch of the Recent Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species” only in the third English edition, April 1861. This is the title it retained thereafter, with the exception of an addition to the title in the sixth English edition, “Previously to the Publication of the First Edition of this Work” (Peckham, 1959, pp. 20, 59). The word “sketch,” on the other hand was one of two words Darwin commonly used in private correspondence to refer to the book that would later become the Origin, the other word being “Abstract,” and both signifying that Darwin thought of the work as being a resume rather than a full-fledged study (e.g., letter to J.D. Hooker, May 9 1856, CCD vol. 6 p. 106; letter to Baden Powell January 18 1860, CCD vol. 8 p. 41; letter to Lyell 25 June 1858, CCD v. 7, 1991, pp. 117–8; letter to Lyell May 1856, CCD, v. 6 p. 100). The most likely source of the title “Historical Sketch” for Darwin’s Preface is Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology in which, beginning with the third edition (1834), Lyell added titles to his chapters, calling chapters 2–4 “Historical Sketch of the Progress of Geology” (Secord, in Lyell [1997], p. xlvii; for other uses by Lyell of this expression, cf. Porter, 1976, p. 95; idem 1982, p. 38; and Lyell, 1830 [1990], p. 30). Further parallels between Lyell’s Introduction and Darwin’s “Historical Sketch” in terms of content and strategy are suggested below.     

Some remarks on the mathematical bio-sociology of the relativity of injustice

The author's theory of the adoption of certain types of behavior patterns (Rashevsky, N., 1957, “Contributions to the Theory Initiative Behavior”.Bull. Maths. Biophysics,19, 91–119; 1968,Looking at History through Mathematics, Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press) consisting of elementary behaviors for each of which there is an opposite one and the two are mutually exclusive, is applied to describe the changes in the general type of behavior of a society. The elementary acts of which the whole problem consists may be either overt activities or beliefs or opinions. The general behavior patternsadopted by the society are considered as the “proper” or “just” ones. Any deviation from it in either one or more of the component elementary behaviors is considered as “unjust” and is subject to some punitive action. The total number of possible mutually exclusive behavior patterns is very large but finite. Within this very large range of possible patterns, we find that this notion of justice is relative, because changes from any behavior pattern to any other may occur. It is further shown that the amount of punishment for the deviation from the accepted pattern in order to be effective as well as efficient must be applied in different ways to different individuals even for the same transgression.     

Reproductive patterns in mantled howler monkeys: Estrus,mate choice and copulation

The present study was undertaken to evaluate non-random mating patterns in two groups of mantled howler monkeys in two tropical dry forest habitats. Sexual dimorphism, female estrus stage, male dominance rank, sexual solicitations and copulations were assessed. Males are significantly larger than females, but female weight varies more than male weight. The length of female estrus cycles is comparable in both habitats, but females in the more strongly seasonal habitat demonstrate greater estrus synchrony relative to their numbers. Males solicit potential mates more frequently than females, a pattern explained by the relatively high rate of sexual solicitation by high-ranking males. Females in “peak” estrus solicit “alpha” males, while females in other stages of estrus solicit males equally by rank. Intersexual aggression occurs rarely, and “forced copulations” are attempted but, apparently, are unsuccessful. Sexual solicitations by “alpha” males and “peak” estrus females are most likely to lead to copulation, and “alpha” males are more likely to copulate than “gamma” males. In general, latencies from first solicitation to copulation are expensive in time, especially for high-ranking males. Estimated annual reproduction success favors high-ranking males, and results indicate that male and female mating behavior is mutually coordinated and controlled.     

A re-assessment of high elevation treeline positions and their explanation

In this review I first compile data for the worldwide position of climate-driven alpine treelines. Causes for treeline formation are then discussed with a global perspective. Available evidence suggests a combination of a general thermal boundary for tree growth, with regionally variable “modulatory” forces, including the presence of certain taxa. Much of the explanatory evidence found in the literature relates to these modulatory aspects at regional scales, whereas no good explanations emerged for the more fundamental global pattern related to temperature per se, on which this review is focused. I hypothesize that the life form “tree” is limited at treeline altitudes by the potential investment, rather than production, of assimilates (growth as such, rather than photosynthesis or the carbon balance, being limited). In shoots coupled to a cold atmosphere, meristem activity is suggested to be limited for much of the time, especially at night. By reducing soil heat flux during the growing season the forest canopy negatively affects root zone temperature. The lower threshold temperature for tissue growth and development appears to be higher than 3°C and lower than 10°C, possibly in the 5.5–7.5°C range, most commonly associated with seasonal means of air temperature at treeline positions. The physiological and developmental mechanisms responsible have yet to be analyzed. Root zone temperature, though largely unknown, is likely to be most critical. Received: 3 October 1997 / Accepted: 14 April 1998     

Direct use values and passive use values: implications for conservation of large carnivores

We made a quantitative analysis of the responses of urban and rural residents in Sweden to arguments supporting and opposing conservation of large carnivores. The most important arguments in favour of conservation were: “I want them [the large carnivores] to exist in Sweden, even if I will never see any of them”, “Sweden should share the responsibility of conserving the large carnivores” and “We owe it [conservation of large carnivores] to future generations”. We found only small differences between rural and urban residents. For arguments opposing conservation, the difference between rural and urban areas was slightly greater. The most important arguments opposing conservation of large carnivores were: “They may have serious negative impact on livestock farming”, “They may have serious negative impact on reindeer husbandry” and “May inflict suffering on injured livestock”. We conclude that there seems to be less support for direct use values such as hunting, ecotourism or just experiencing large carnivores, this may imply that the minimum viable population size can be used as a long-term management goal for large carnivore populations, possibly with an exception for bears. We also conclude that a separate conservation or management plan is needed for each species, since the conflicts with human interests vary greatly between the different carnivore species.     

Source-sink landscape theory and its ecological significance

Exploring the relationships between landscape pattern and ecological processes is the key topic of landscape ecology, for which, a large number of indices as well as landscape pattern analysis model were developed. However, one problem faced by landscape ecologists is that it is hard to link the landscape indices with a specific ecological process. Linking landscape pattern and ecological processes has become a challenge for landscape ecologists. “Source” and “sink” are common concepts used in air pollution research, by which the movement direction and pattern of different pollutants in air can be clearly identified. In fact, for any ecological process, the research can be considered as a balance between the source and the sink in space. Thus, the concepts of “source” and “sink” could be implemented to the research of landscape pattern and ecological processes. In this paper, a theory of sourcesink landscape was proposed, which include: (1) In the research of landscape pattern and ecological process, all landscape types can be divided into two groups, “source” landscape and “sink” landscape. “Source” landscape contributes positively to the ecological process, while “sink” landscape is unhelpful to the ecological process. (2) Both landscapes are recognized with regard to the specific ecological process. “Source” landscape in a target ecological process may change into a “sink” landscape as in another ecological process. Therefore, the ecological process should be determined before “source” or “sink” landscape were defined. (3) The key point to distinguish “source” landscape from “sink” landscape is to quantify the effect of landscape on ecological process. The positive effect is made by “source” landscape, and the negative effect by “sink” landscape. (4) For the same ecological process, the contribution of “source” landscapes may vary, and it is the same to the “sink” landscapes. It is required to determine the weight of each landscape type on ecological processes. (5) The sourcesink principle can be applied to non-point source pollution control, biologic diversity protection, urban heat island effect mitigation, etc. However, the landscape evaluation models need to be calibrated respectively, because different ecological processes correspond with different source-sink landscapes and evaluation models for the different study areas. This theory is helpful to further study landscape pattern and ecological process, and offers a basis for new landscape index design. __________ Translated from Acta Ecologica Sinica, 2006, 26(5): 1444–1449 [译自: 生态学报]     

Biology,boundaries and borders

Towards Justice and Peace is a splendid title for a symposium and book to honour Professor Sunderland. It is also a very difficult title for a biological anthropologist. I make the distinction from social anthropology with some apology. There are of course many subdisciplines and traditions within Anthropology and I most associate Professor Sunderland's support of my university and myself with our attempts to foster cross-disciplinary discussion, towards a “Biosocial Anthropology”, as it were. So, while for specialists in fossilization of bones, sequences of DNA molecules or analysis of urine, the title, Towards Justice and Peace might cause problems, I should like to discuss some biosocial anthropology on an international frontier, which, after centuries of military aggression and defence, is now a peaceful line on a map within the European Community. HMM.     

Consortships and conceptions in captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

A captive group of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) was observed during the breeding season to determine if consortship behavior, rather than promiscuous matings, resulted in higher reproductive success for either partner. The 38 adult females in this group were observed “in consort” with the 5 adult or 4 subadult males on 179 occasions. Most of these consortships were short-term, lasting less than one day. Six females engaged in consortships with one male that spanned more than three days, but the majority of these long-term associations did not result in a pregnancy with that male. The term “consortship” has been traditionally accepted as a specific nonhuman primate mating pattern, but the exact nature of this behavioral pattern and its evolutionary importance have been less clearly understood. Consort behavior could be considered a precursor to a monogamous mating system if long-term exclusive sexual associations resulted in higher reproductive success for the participants. But this study demonstrates that for rhesus macaques, who exhibit both consort behavior and more promiscuous matings, there is no clear reproductive advantage to long-term consortships. In light of the inconsistent use of the term consortship, the possible adaptive significance of an exclusive male-female sexual association for the evolution of human mating patterns needs to be reevaluated.     

A reexamination of Gilligan’s analysis of the female moral system

Gilligan’s (1982) refinement of Kohlberg’s theory on moral development operates on two theses: (1) females, more so than males, reach moral decisions based on the personalities of the relevant individuals; and (2) female behaviors stemming from moral decisions are based upon “care” and “responsibility for others.” This article accepts the first thesis but argues that the second is incorrect. That is, self-interest—i.e., aiding “blood” kin and/or carefully monitoring reciprocity—rather than “altruism” is argued to be the operant dynamic in forging distaff morality and resultant behavior. Six empirical examples are presented as contraindicative of Gilligan’s second thesis. Finally, it is suggested that selection for the psychological traits of independence and the mastery of subtle social chess yielded ancestral females who had more descendants—us—than did females with alternative profiles. Nancy S. Coney is a professor at Western Illinois University and is interested in both clinical and nonclinical aspects of women’s psychology. Wade C. Mackey is interested in biocultural anthropology and has authored two books on fathering:Fathering Behaviors (Plenum, 1995) andThe American Father (Plenum, 1996).