Transcript Chapter 6

Chapter 6
The Protoplasmic Venture
“Humans can’t live without
seeking to describe and
explain the universe.” (Sir
Isaiah Berlin)
Four Great Etiological Questions
1.
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3.
4.
What
What
What
What
is
is
is
is
the
the
the
the
origin
origin
origin
origin
of
of
of
of
life?
human beings?
matter?
the universe?
Biochemical Evolution
• Alexander Oparin (1922)
• J.B.S. Haldane (1928)
• Stanley Miller (1953)
• First laboratory synthesis of a complete
mammalian gene (1975)
• Cyril Ponnamperuma
• George Wald (1957)
The Beginning of Life on Earth
• When did life begin on the planet Earth?
• Fossil records indicate that life developed
sometime between 4.5 billion years ago
and 3.5 billion years ago
• During that billion-year period, some
wonderful and incredible events were
taking place
Earth’s Life-Forms: An Inventory
• “Hot thin soup”
• 1.5 million species of living organisms
• 10,000 new species added annually
• Estimated 10 million species of organisms
exist
• Estimated 10 billion species produced by
evolution on Earth since planet began
Biogenetic Theories
• Panspermia
• Spontaneous generation
• Hylozoism
• Creationism
• Vitalism
Can “Life” Be Defined?
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What is “life”?
Self-replication
Mutability
Motility
Metabolism
Growth
Irritability
Dynamic Equilibrium
Evolution as a Field Theory
• Darwin’s genius: 1) his ability to bring a
synoptic mind to these disparate elements
and fit them all together; 2) his meticulous
gathering of scientific data to support his
theory
Three Basic Processes of
evolution
1. The laws of heredity
2. Mutations produced by changes in the
DNA code
3. The dynamics of natural selection
Evolution Based on Five
Observations
1. Species produce like species
2. There is an enormous excess of
reproductive material
3. Individual variations in genetic
characteristics
4. Competition for food and living room
5. Environmental niches are dynamic
Evolution and Meaning
• The Doctrine of Progress
• Nietzsche, The main goal of history is to
produce a man who has such greatness
that he would be a new species
• Bergson, Vital Life-force
Evolution and Progress
• Natural Selection is an Arms Race
• Evolutionary Convergence
• Epigenetics
A Case of Convergence: The
Eye
• Represents a new worldview for understanding
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all living things
Exactly the same structures, functions, and
behavioral mechanisms exist everywhere
throughout the animal and plant kingdoms
The eye as an example of convergence
Eyes have continued to evolve along
independent lines of development
No individual organism should be seen as a
stage on the way “up” to something else
Suffering and the Arms Race
• “Terrible but true, the suffering among
wild animals is so appalling that sensitive
souls would best not contemplate it.” -Richard Dawkins
• What is the meaning of human suffering?
• Traditional Problem of Evil
Philosophic Implications
• “Do we understand how life evolves”?
• What does it mean to say this?
• Chemical biogenesis as first-magnitude
field theory
• Ethical considerations
• Cosmic implications
Philosophic Problems
• Irreversibility
• Convergence
Charles Darwin
The Grandest Synthesis
• Darwin saw the key to the puzzle: the
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mechanism of evolvement is the “struggle for
survival” and the “survival of the fittest.”
Under the perpetual threat of starvation and
annihilation in the harsh environment, all species
of life on Earth continually struggle for survival,
and only the fittest survive.
Reflections…
• What do you think are the most far-
reaching philosophic implications of the
biochemical theory of the origin of life? Do
you feel a sense of relief that foundations
have been laid for an empirical answer to
this question?
Humans
• This chapter describes the evolutionary
context for reflecting on the human
situation and suggests that evolution has
now taken a new and unpredictable turn.
The Sculptor-Gods
Pottery as a universal skill
Shards of pottery have been found wherever
people have lived
Clay figurines were made for fun
Creation myths based on sculpting clay
Examples: Tu, Titi and Tame; Ewe-speaking tribes
of Togo, West Africa; Toradjas of the Celebes;
Hebrew account of creation; Shilluks of White
Nile
The Story of Human Origins
• Homo Sapiens – “wise humans”
• Homo Habilis
• Australopithecus (Lucy)
• Homo erectus
Update: Human Origins
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Sahelanthropus tchadensis
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus africanus
Ardipithecus ramidus
Homo ergaster
Homo floresiensis
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Homo sapien
Still Trying to Define “Human”
• Physical characteristics
• Ethical feelings
• Esthetic feelings
• Religious feelings
• Soul-essence (psyche)
The Killer-Ape Theory
• Killing “on principle”…inherited or learned?
• Leakey and Lorenz and the killer-ape
theory
• Montagu’s dispute of the theory
• How do we humans differ from our animal
kin regarding feelings of aggression?
• What distinguishes humans from other
animals?
The Immense Journey
• Rapid progress in science/technology has
radically altered the selective function of
the environment
• Destruction of our natural environment
Soren Kierkegaard
“That Individual”
• Now called Existentialism, it is a philosophy of
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the experiencing human self, and Kierkegaard’s
life is the story of one man’s search for what it
means to be human
“The thing is to understand myself…to see what
God really wishes me to do; the thing is to find a
truth which is true for me, to find the idea for
which I can live and die.”
Reflections…
• Make an attempt to define “human.” How
would you describe “essential man”? What
are some of the problems we must face in
developing a definition?
Earth
• This chapter is a meditation on
humankind’s relationship to other living
creatures on Earth and to the Earth itself.
It raises the question of who has a right to
control and exploit other species.
Our Place in the Scheme of Things
• General evolution
• Human evolution
• Cultural evolution
• 3 stages: 1) Parent-child relationship; 2)
man as conqueror; 3) protective feeling
toward nature
An Ecospheric Ethic
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Who has a right to do what to whom and why?
The notion of “right”
Professor Sessions assessment
Rachel Carson’s attack
St. Francis of Assisi
Professor Charles Hartshorne’s “Ultimate Value”
Professor John Cobb’s “intrinsic criteria”
Coexistence - In Life & Death
• Physical/ecological relationships
• Psychological/ecological relationships
• Why do we kill for pleasure?
• Human sacrifice
• Anthropomorphizing animal kin: 1) we
can’t help it; 2) we want other creatures
to like us
“No Man Is An Island”
• Each is a part of the whole, subject to the
same physical forces that move the atoms
and the planets
• We are part of an awesome protoplasmic
venture
Albert Schweitzer
Reverence for Life
• Reverence for life – “In that principle my
life has found a firm footing and a clear
path to follow.”
Reflections…
• Think about Schweitzer’s Reverence for
Life – a concept he believed to be “the
realistic answer to the realistic question of
how man and the world are related to
each other.” How do you feel about this
all-inclusive ethic?
Future
• This chapter describes several future
scenarios, both optimistic and pessimistic
The Theoretical Life
• Practical life (praktikos bios) – shortrange goals
(…versus the…)
• Theoretical life (theoretikos bios) –
long-range goals
Research Into the Future
• Utopias and anti-Utopias
• Futures research: 1) forecasting
techniques; 2) world catastrophe; 3) world
systems; 4) past frameworks obsolete
• What is the goal of futures research?
Mankind at the Turning Point
1. A world consciousness
2. A new ethic in the use of material
resources
3. An attitude toward nature must be
developed based on harmony rather
than conquest
4. A sense of identification with future
generations
The Futurists & the Future
• No single world-picture, although there is
remarkable agreement on many points
• Short-range futurists
• Middle-range futurists
• Long-range futurists
• Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock
• Arthur C. Clarke
A New Kind of Realism
• Based on a more objective assessment of
empirical data, this realism attempts to
project a variety of scenarios in the hope
we can, in time, face them and solve them
The Players
• Sir Fred Hoyle
• Edward O. Wilson
• Robert T. McCall
• Ray Bradbury
Many Futures: A Common Vision
• Today’s world has come unglued,
unraveled
• There is a pressing need for a sense of
global identity and a shared vision of the
future – a reason to exist
• A shared vision of our common future is
therefore enormously important
Friedrich Nietzsche
The Glory of Becoming Human
• Nietzsche built on a theory of evolution to
reinterpret the history of the human race
and to lay foundations for his grand vision
of the future of mankind
• “Will to power” as the basic drive
• Ubermensch – “Superman”
The Nietzsche Myth
• Myth: Nietzsche is a bigoted anti-Semite
• Myth: Nietzsche is an advocate of Darwin’s
Evolutionary Theory
• Only after Nietzsche’s death was his
philosophy appropriated as official
ideology of Nazi apologetics
• The Germans saw themselves as the
“master race”
Reflections…
• Recall the statement that opens this
chapter: That we create the past and can
also create alternative futures; and that
we need both past and future to see
ourselves in perspective. How much value
is there in this way of looking at ourselves
and our place in time?