Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of EvolutionIn recent years, evolutionary theorists have come to recognize that the reductionist, individualist, gene-centered approach to evolution cannot sufficiently account for the emergence of complex biological systems over time. Peter A. Corning has been at the forefront of a new generation of complexity theorists who have been working to reshape the foundations of evolutionary theory. Well known for his Synergism Hypothesis—a theory of complexity in evolution that assigns a key causal role to various forms of functional synergy—Corning puts this theory into a much broader framework in Holistic Darwinism, addressing many of the issues and concepts associated with the evolution of complex systems. Corning's paradigm embraces and integrates many related theoretical developments of recent years, from multilevel selection theory to niche construction theory, gene-culture coevolution theory, and theories of self-organization. Offering new approaches to thermodynamics, information theory, and economic analysis, Corning suggests how all of these domains can be brought firmly within what he characterizes as a post–neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis. |
Contents
The New Evolutionary Paradigm | 1 |
Synergy and Evolution From the Origins of Life to Global Governance | 9 |
Synergy Another Idea Whose Time Has Come? | 11 |
Holistic Darwinism Synergistic Selection and the Evolutionary Process | 17 |
The Synergism Hypothesis On the Concept of Synergy and Its Role in the Evolution of Complex Systems | 47 |
Synergy versus SelfOrganization in the Evolution of Complex Systems | 89 |
The ReEmergence of Emergence A Venerable Concept in Search of a Theory | 123 |
Synergy Cybernetics and the Evolution of Politics | 141 |
From Thermodynamics and Information Theory to Thermoeconomics and Control Information | 311 |
To Be or Entropy Thermodynamics Information and Life Revisited | 313 |
Thermoeconomics Beyond the Second Law | 335 |
Control Information The Missing Element in Norbert Wieners Cybernetic Paradigm? | 361 |
Evolution and Ethics | 377 |
Evolutionary Ethics An Idea Whose Time Has Come? | 379 |
The Sociobiology of Democracy Is Authoritarianism in Our Genes? | 403 |
Fair Shares A Biological Approach to Social Justice | 417 |
Devolution as an Opportunity to Test the Synergism Hypothesis and the Cybernetic Theory of Political Systems | 165 |
Synergy and the Evolution of Superorganisms Past Present and Future | 187 |
Bioeconomics and Evolution | 213 |
Evolutionary Economics Metaphor or Unifying Paradigm? | 215 |
Bioeconomics as a Subversive Science | 237 |
Biological Adaptation in Human Societies A Basic Needs Approach | 253 |
Other editions - View all
Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution Peter Corning Limited preview - 2010 |
Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution Peter Corning No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
adaptation animals Anthropology associated available energy basic needs behavior Bioeconomics biological biologist Cambridge causal chapter colonies competition concept control information cooperation Corning cultural Darwin Darwinian defined developed Doyal and Gough dynamics E. O. Wilson ecological effects emergence entropy environment ethics eukaryotic evolution of complex evolutionary economics evolutionary process evolved example fact factors functional game theory genes genetic global group selection Holistic Darwinism human evolution human nature human societies important individual interactions interdependent involves Journal living systems major Margulis Maxwell's demon Maynard Smith measure naked mole rats natural selection noted earlier paradigm perspective phenomena physical population primary needs principle problem properties recent relationship role Science second law self-organization selfish gene Sociobiology species Spencer statistical structures superorganism survival and reproduction survival enterprise symbiogenesis symbiosis Synergism Hypothesis synergistic synergy term theoretical theorists thermodynamic Thermoeconomics tion University Press various Wilson York