Transcript Lecture 17 – Darwin

“I could not have believed how wide was
the difference between savage and
civilized man: it is greater than between a
wild and domesticated animal, inasmuch
as in man there is a greater power of
improvement.”
—Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle, 1839
“Darwin’s work is most important and suits
my purpose in that it provides a basis in
natural science for the historical class
struggle.”
—Marx, 16 January 1861
“But the essence of man is no abstraction
inherent in each single individual. In
reality, it is the ensemble of the social
relations.”
—Marx (Thesis on Feuerbach, 1845)
Darwin . . . and the
Humanities?
Charles Darwin, age 6
John Edmonstone and Charles Darwin, age 17
Darwin’s rice recipe, written into—and published within—his wife’s cookbook
The science “genius”
e.g., Richard Feynman, physicist, bongo hobbyist
5 x 12 = . . . hrmmm.
Can’t figure it. How’s
about boilin’ some rice?
Darwin’s dad, the fat cat
Captain FitzRoy, gentleman
John Henslow, friend of Darwin’s at Cambridge,
professor of Botany and Anglican Priest,
gentleman
Catastrophism: the belief that existing natural forms—
the size and shape of hills, bodies of water, rock
formations, and so forth—were caused by a series of
sudden, violent global events that forever changed the
face of the earth (Lewens 19)
Catastrophism: the belief that existing natural forms—the size
and shape of hills, bodies of water, rock formations, and so
forth—were caused by a series of sudden, violent global events
that forever changed the face of the earth (Lewens 19). E.g.,
Noah’s Flood (R. Crumb)
Transmutation, or Transformisme, in French, was
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s pre-Darwinian term for the
change of one species into another in response to
changing environmental conditions.
Transmutation: Lamarck’s pre-Darwinian term for the change of
one species into another in response to changing environmental
conditions.
?
Lamarck’s theory of Giraffe’s willing their necks to
extend. Through willful self-exertion, a giraffe’s neck
could extend and this growth could then be passed on to
the giraffe’s children. Evolutionary mechanism: use or
disuse of biological form.
Illustrations from Darwin’s Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals
Uniformitarionism (gradualism): geological theory
introduced by Charles Lyell; it posits that a set number
of universal laws govern the formation of natural
phenomena, laws that, once discovered, can explain any
natural phenomena at any given time, not just on earth
but anywhere in the known universe.
Himalayan Mountain Range, Nepal
70 Millions Years In 2 Minutes
Christ . . . and dinosaurs?
Natural selection: occurs when random
variations in biological morphology—the
structure of protein cells that form every aspect
of our bodies and minds—give an organism a
fitness advantage (the ability to produce more
offspring) relative to other organisms in a
population.
Galápagos Finches
Galápagos Finches
How could the island ecologies be the
same but the finches different?
Finch from island 1
Islands’ ecosystems more or less identical
yet different finches were on each island.
Finch from island 16
Natural selection (contrasted with artificial selection):
when an advantageous change in an organism, caused
randomly, increases its reproduction and the genetic
difference passes on to future generations. Organism
changing in ways to further exploit preexisting
environmental conditions.
Natural selection (contrasted with artificial selection): when an
advantageous change in an organism, caused randomly, increases
its reproduction and the genetic difference passes on to future
generations. Organism changing in ways to further exploit
preexisting environmental conditions.
Wolf’s speed  increased hunting success  increased offspring
Evolution is not teleological; undesirable traits
may offer fitness advantages; war, sexual coercion,
and some of our worst tendencies may (or may not)
be in part caused by adaptive design.
Question: Is Darwin teleological in our reading?
Proposition: if we’re to learn anything from
HUM102 shouldn’t it have something to do with
the very stuff values are made on, that is, the
emotions?
Your hypothetical response: “Why, yes, of
course, I need to know exactly what the
emotions are so I can understand human values
in turn.”
1. Human nature principle: we all have biological
blueprints that code for specialized systems in the brain
and body (systems for sight, smell, touch,
cardiovascular function, and emotion)
1. Human nature principle: we all have biological
blueprints that code for specialized systems in the brain
and body (systems for sight, smell, touch,
cardiovascular function, and emotion)
2. Social emotion principle: feeling an emotion isn’t a
universal biological response but a byproduct of
variable social conditions.
Amygdalae activation in
Response to perceived threat
Snake!
Mammals’ beginning
(290 million years)
Homo sapiens
(160k years)
Hominid divergence
from lesser apes
(15 to 20 m years)
Amygdala: Evolved Emotional
System Shared by Vertibrates
Although humans possess a number of
cognitive abilities that differentiate us from
other animals, we share emotional
behaviours — defined as behavioural
responses to emotionally significant stimuli
such as food or threats — with other
vertebrates [all animals that have a spinal
cord]. The amygdala is a brain region that is
important for emotional processing, the
circuitry and function of which has been
well-conserved across evolution (Fig. 1),
although species differences do exist1. Even
non-mammalian species such as reptiles,
birds and fish have an amygdala-like brain
region with similar circuits and functions to
the amygdala in mammals2–5.
Janak, Patricia H., and Kay M. Tye. 2015. "From circuits to behaviour in the amygdala." Nature 517 (7534):284-292.
nosce te ipsum!
• Psy exp