Redefining community: towards an ecological republicanism

This paper makes some suggestions for a concept of community which arguably satisfies the most important criteria for both human communities, as defined in the social sciences and humanities, and natural communities, as defined in ecology and biology. Beginning with the former, I arrive at two such criteria: (1) a material and social connection among members, and (2) some kind and degree of awareness of other members. These are then supplemented with a third drawn from civic republicanism, with its focus on citizenship and the common good: communities (3) enable and require certain practices for their maintainence. Turning to ecological definitions of community, I find the dominant (reductionist) one seriously deficient as compared with a more holist and ecosystemic approach. However, I invoke a nonreductive holism to defend the idea of community, and go on to argue that each of the three above-mentioned criteria can be fruitfully extended to include both social and ecological communities in a nonreductionist way – that is, in a way that neither reduces ecosystemic properties to individual organisms nor the reverse. This culminates in a discussion of what I call ecological republicanism, which I suggest could have powerfully positive effects on the contemporary crisis of undue human impact on the natural world.     

展望数学生态学与生态模型的未来

首先简要回顾了２０世纪数学生态学发展的历史,特别是半２个世纪以来在中国的发展。然后指出了生物学的进步为数学生态学的发展提供了机遇。作者列出了当前数学生态学和生态模型研究的几个热点：⑴非线性动力学;⑵种群的时空动态：包括异质种群动态,源－汇理论以及种群对时、空变化的响应等;⑶多样性和稳定性的关系;⑷行为的动态模型;⑸基于个体的模型。最后指出,生态学中混沌现象,可能表明多年来理论生态学家寻找的种群动态     

Emergentism as a default: Cancer as a problem of tissue organization

During the last fifty years the dominant stance in experimental biology has been reductionism. For the most part, research programs were based on the notion that genes were in ’the driver’s seat’ controlling the developmental program and determining normalcy and disease (genetic reductionism and genetic determinism). Philosophers were the first to realize that the belief that the Mendelian genes were reduced to DNA molecules was questionable. Soon after these pronouncements, experimental data confirmed their misgivings. The optimism of molecular biologists, fueled by early success in tackling relatively simple problems, has now been tempered by the difficulties found when attempting to understand complex biological problems. Here, we analyse experimental data that illustrate the shortcomings of this sort of reductionism. We also examine the prevailing paradigm in cancer research, the somatic mutation theory (SMT), the premises of which are: (i) cancer is derived from a single somatic cell that has accumulated multiple DNA mutations; (ii) the default state of cell proliferation in metazoa is quiescence; and (iii) cancer is a disease of cell proliferation caused by mutations in genes that control proliferation and the cell cycle. We challenge the notion that cancer is a cellular problem caused by mutated genes by assessing data gathered both from within the reductionist paradigm and from an alternative view that regards carcinogenesis as a developmental process gone awry. This alternative view, explored under the name of the tissue organization field theory (TOFT), is based on premises that place cancer in a different hierarchical level of complexity from that proposed by the SMT, namely: (i) carcinogenesis represents a problem of tissue organization comparable to organogenesis, and (ii) proliferation is the default state of all cells. We propose that the organicist view, in which the TOFT is based, is a good starting point from which to explore emergent phenomena. However, new theoretical concepts are needed in order to grapple with the apparent circular causality of complex biological phenomena in development and carcinogenesis.     

植物群落学研究中整体论与个体论关系的探讨

分析了植物群落学研究中长期争论的整体性观点与个体性观点产生的历史背景和思想根源,并介绍了人们目前对二者关系的认识水平．由于植物群落既有整体性一面又有个体性的一面,指出今后植物群落学研究中应采取个体性与整体性相结合的方法以提高人们对复杂的植物群落的认识水平,更好地掌握其变化规律,以便设计更完美的人工生态系统．     

用生态学思维重构传统农学学科:生产生态学的角色

传统农学学科与专业源于近代试验科学的还原论思维,并在工业革命巨大成功的推动下不断分化,失去了对农业生物与资源环境关系即农业生态系统机制的整体把握;而且,由于过多依赖外源化石能源的投入和若干高产作物品种的单一种植,不断丧失农业内部可持续性,使人类面临粮食安全和食品安全的双重危机.因此,农学学科及其教育体系的重构日益迫切.将农学与生态学联姻,建立以农业生态学为核心理论、农业生态系统管理为核心技术,特别是创建“生产生态学”,以之融合农学学科下属2个二级学科“作物栽培学与耕作学”与“作物遗传育种学”之间的鸿沟,将从意识论和方法论上为真正地实施农业可持续发展战略奠定学科、科学和教育基础.     

Science and Restoration Under a Big, Demon Haunted Tent: Reply to Giardina et al. (2007)

In a recent editorial, I discussed how the culture of science, heterogeneity of nature, and real‐world human complexities can limit the practical relevance of formal scientific research and argued that less formal approaches might often be more efficient and effective. Giardina et al. criticized this editorial and argued that formal science has and increasingly will play a central role in ecological restoration in particular and human progress in general. Here, I respond to these arguments and expand upon the ideas presented in my previous editorial. I further illustrate how despite superficial appearances the utilitarian value of formal science may often be largely indirect. I also argue that the complexities of ecological and human systems combined with the subjective values and political beliefs underlying restoration make transforming this discipline into a unified “hard science” virtually impossible. Because values and politics also underlie most environmental conflicts, and scientific inquiry is inherently unsuitable for resolving these kinds of disputes, the future success of restoration may depend more on political support than scientific progress. Dogmatic, nonfalsifiable faith in the universal superiority of “rigorous” scientific knowledge and methodologies can foster arrogance and intolerance and blind us to the ephemeral nature of scientific “truths” and the double‐edged sword of scientific “progress.” My hope is that Society for Ecological Restoration International (SERI) will remain a big inclusive tent that embraces a healthy diversity of foci and approaches that emulate the extraordinary diversity we find within the natural ecosystems and human cultures we strive to preserve, restore, and reconnect.