Questions tagged [philosophy-of-biology]
The philosophy-of-biology tag has no usage guidance.
70
questions
5
votes
0
answers
92
views
Sheldrake's Fields as Formal Causes
Why do we not consider fields as formal causes, especially in light of Rupert Sheldrake's analysis of morphogenetic fields? How does Sheldrake's hypothesis of formative causation challenge our ...
3
votes
0
answers
51
views
Is consciousness a means of our species or a consequence of accumulated knowledge? [closed]
Consciousness for me is you being conscious of being in a body. It separates from the human body, for me, consciousness is the "being" of the "human being". So, is it a means of ...
1
vote
2
answers
123
views
Does P=NP affect evolution?
One way to model evolution is to say here are a bunch of algorithms which have a particular probability distribution as a subject to thermodynamics in the physical world as processes. Then we allow ...
4
votes
2
answers
92
views
The concept of evolution as a synthetic tool in science?
Darwin’s theory, notably after the update by the Modern Synthesis from the 20th century, developed into the main paradigm of today’s biology.
It is not only a synthesis of different results which ...
6
votes
3
answers
169
views
What is Darwin’s impact on modern thought?
The question refers to a paper by Ernst Mayr, who was an eminent biologist on the field of the modern theory of evolution, Modern Synthesis. Mayr introduced and answered the title question in a short ...
1
vote
1
answer
71
views
Has there been any biological underpinnings of intuition?
So I know relevance (as I think of it) is a subset of our lightcone (for lack of a better word/analogy our experience). I suspect intuition is some kind of subset of relevance and union of our ...
5
votes
8
answers
3k
views
Is it justified to communicate one’s feelings regarding someone’s abortion decision? [closed]
Note-1: Due to the question being subjective and opinion based nature, as well as due to it is touching a controversial issue, I have voted to close my own question, with keeping the existing ...
2
votes
2
answers
131
views
Where do morals come from? (Specifically someone who doesn't belive in God) [duplicate]
If someone doesn't believe in a God that gives Objective morals, where do they get their morals from? If life is this straightforward then no objective morality or even truth can be claimed. So why do ...
5
votes
10
answers
3k
views
Is it possible that non-living systems possess consciousness?
This relates to the physical nature of matter, not to metaphysics. I cannot find a robust, universal definition of consciousness, so perhaps the question is meaningless. I am thinking of the behaviour ...
1
vote
4
answers
203
views
A circularity in Richard Dawkins's book "The Blind Watchmaker" regarding a definition of life
I wanted to put this question in the biology stack exchange, but some of my questions there have been downvoted. In Richard Dawkins's book "The Blind Watchmaker", in the first chapter, says &...
4
votes
3
answers
246
views
Are the body parts of living beings, considered living beings?
Consider a living being, for example, us humans. The body of this living being is composed of various components such as heart, brain, kidney, etc. Now the question is whether these components ...
1
vote
1
answer
155
views
How could we disprove the notion that society is a conscious entity?
Humans are made up of billions of cells.
You and I are human, and we can perceive our existence.
Cells and their consciousness can be debatable, but they indeed operate in a way that indicates they ...
0
votes
0
answers
46
views
Are brains geometrically equivalent to three-dimensional Venn diagrams?
I had a coworker who was kind of obsessed with Christopher Langan's supposed "theory of everything," and one article of evidence he introduced was his thought that the way our eyes are ...
0
votes
3
answers
155
views
Are humans still bipedal if a child is born without legs? [closed]
I am aware of a type philosophical argument that relies on a single counterexample to falsify an absolute statement:
All swans are white.
But here is a black swan. Your claim is false.
But I have ...
2
votes
0
answers
237
views
Robert Sapolsky ideas critics
I'm searching for critics of Robert Sapolsky "Behave". Could you recomend any materials?
Thanks!