Modern Biology & Visions of Humanity

Modern Biology & Visions of Humanity PDF Author: European Group on Life Sciences
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Ethical questions arising from developments in modern biology, such as "If we are genetically determined, where is free will?" "Is it right for humans to create new foods?" and "Should organizations be allowed to hold the keys to the production of vast amounts of food globally in the form of a patent?" are discussed in this collection of presentations from the 2004 European Commission sponsored conference "Modern Biology and Visions of Humanity." Organized into four sections, the contributions from this event reflect on the complex relationship between science and society and touch on such subjects as what are the benefits of science, who decides its uses, and how science relates to other areas of human creativity. Leading figures in the worlds of science and the arts take sides in these essays in either promoting the products and services biology provides, challenging biology's vision of humanity, or questioning the whole approach of Western science from a political perspective.

Modern Biology & Visions of Humanity

Modern Biology & Visions of Humanity PDF Author: European Group on Life Sciences
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Ethical questions arising from developments in modern biology, such as "If we are genetically determined, where is free will?" "Is it right for humans to create new foods?" and "Should organizations be allowed to hold the keys to the production of vast amounts of food globally in the form of a patent?" are discussed in this collection of presentations from the 2004 European Commission sponsored conference "Modern Biology and Visions of Humanity." Organized into four sections, the contributions from this event reflect on the complex relationship between science and society and touch on such subjects as what are the benefits of science, who decides its uses, and how science relates to other areas of human creativity. Leading figures in the worlds of science and the arts take sides in these essays in either promoting the products and services biology provides, challenging biology's vision of humanity, or questioning the whole approach of Western science from a political perspective.

Primate Visions

Primate Visions PDF Author: Donna J. Haraway
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136608141
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
Haraway's discussions of how scientists have perceived the sexual nature of female primates opens a new chapter in feminist theory, raising unsettling questions about models of the family and of heterosexuality in primate research.

Biology As Ideology

Biology As Ideology PDF Author: Richard Lewontin
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 0887848478
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
R. C. Lewontin is a prominent scientist -- a geneticist who teaches at Harvard -- yet he believes that we have placed science on a pedestal, treating it as an objective body of knowledge that transcends all other ways of knowing and all other endeavours. Lewontin writes in this collection of essays, which began their life as CBC Radio's Massey Lectures Series for 1990: "Scientists do not begin life as scientists, after all, but as social beings immersed in a family, a state, a productive structure, and they view nature through a lens that has been molded by their social experience... . Science, like the Church before it, is a supremely social institution, reflecting and reinforcing the dominant values and vices of society at each historical epoch." In Biology as Ideology Lewontin examines the false paths down which modern scientific ideology has led us. By admitting science's limitations, he helps us rediscover the richness of nature -- and appreciate the real value of science.

The Social Meaning of Modern Biology

The Social Meaning of Modern Biology PDF Author: Howard Kaye
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351473948
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
The Social Meaning of Modern Biology analyzes the cultural significance of recurring attempts since the time of Darwin to extract social and moral guidance from the teachings of modern biology. Such efforts are often dismissed as ideological defenses of the social status quo, of the sort wrongly associated with nineteenth-century social Darwinism. Howard Kaye argues they are more properly viewed as culturally radical attempts to redefine who we are by nature and thus rethink how we should live. Despite the scientific and philosophical weaknesses of arguments that "biology is destiny," and their dehumanizing potential, in recent years they have proven to be powerfully attractive. They will continue to be so in an age enthralled by genetic explanations of human experience and excited by the prospect of its biological control.In the ten years since the original edition of The Social Meaning of Modern Biology was published, changes in both science and society have altered the terms of debate over the nature of man and human culture. Kaye's epilogue thoroughly examines these changes. He discusses the remarkable growth of ethology and sociobiology in their study of animal and human behavior and the stunning progress achieved in neuropsychology and behavioral genetics. These developments may appear to bring us closer to long-sought explanations of our physical, mental, and behavioral "machinery." Yet, as Kaye demonstrates, attempts to use such explanations to unify the natural and social sciences are mired in self-contradictory accounts of human freedom and moral choice. The Social Meaning of Modern Biology remains a significant study in the field of sociobiology and is essential reading for sociologists, biologists, behavioral geneticists, and psychologists.

Modern Biology

Modern Biology PDF Author: V. B. Rastogi
Publisher: Pitambar Publishing
ISBN: 9788120904965
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1044

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Book Description


The Social Meaning of Modern Biology

The Social Meaning of Modern Biology PDF Author: Howard Kaye
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351473956
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
The Social Meaning of Modern Biology analyzes the cultural significance of recurring attempts since the time of Darwin to extract social and moral guidance from the teachings of modern biology. Such efforts are often dismissed as ideological defenses of the social status quo, of the sort wrongly associated with nineteenth-century social Darwinism. Howard Kaye argues they are more properly viewed as culturally radical attempts to redefine who we are by nature and thus rethink how we should live. Despite the scientific and philosophical weaknesses of arguments that "biology is destiny," and their dehumanizing potential, in recent years they have proven to be powerfully attractive. They will continue to be so in an age enthralled by genetic explanations of human experience and excited by the prospect of its biological control.In the ten years since the original edition of The Social Meaning of Modern Biology was published, changes in both science and society have altered the terms of debate over the nature of man and human culture. Kaye's epilogue thoroughly examines these changes. He discusses the remarkable growth of ethology and sociobiology in their study of animal and human behavior and the stunning progress achieved in neuropsychology and behavioral genetics. These developments may appear to bring us closer to long-sought explanations of our physical, mental, and behavioral "machinery." Yet, as Kaye demonstrates, attempts to use such explanations to unify the natural and social sciences are mired in self-contradictory accounts of human freedom and moral choice. The Social Meaning of Modern Biology remains a significant study in the field of sociobiology and is essential reading for sociologists, biologists, behavioral geneticists, and psychologists.

Modern Biology and Its Human Implications

Modern Biology and Its Human Implications PDF Author: John Alfred Valentine Butler
Publisher: Crane Russak, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780844810072
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description


On Vision and Being Human: Exploring the Menstrual, Neurological and Symbolic Origins of Religious Experience

On Vision and Being Human: Exploring the Menstrual, Neurological and Symbolic Origins of Religious Experience PDF Author: Bruce Rimell
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1326337580
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Visionary and religious experiences are ubiquitous among human beings, but why do we experience them as coming from a hidden reality beyond the senses? Why should we believe in the existence of deities despite the mundane evidence of our own eyes? Why do we as intelligent primates ascribe any importance to these 'imaginary' realities at all? This creative and speculative thesis seeks to answer these questions in a new way, gazing into the content of visions themselves and exploring the various inner realities that gave rise to these transformative and meaningful aspects of our humanity. Focusing upon symbolic cognition as a fundamental organising principle of human experience, a diverse series of musings upon the nature of reality, consciousness, and our evolutionary origins seeks to transcend our modern artificial boundaries to arrive at a holistic, and delightfully playful, human image for the twenty-first century. An original visionary thesis illustrated with 30 beautiful drawings.

The Molecular Vision of Life

The Molecular Vision of Life PDF Author: Lily E. Kay
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195111435
Category : California Institute of Technology
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This fascinating study examines the rise of American molecular biology to disciplinary dominance, focusing on the period between 1930 and the elucidation of DNA structure in the mid 1950s. Research undertaken during this period, with its focus on genetic structure and function, endowed scientists with then unprecedented power over life. By viewing the new biology as both a scientific and cultural enterprise, Lily E. Kay shows that the growth of molecular biology was a result of systematic efforts by key scientists and their sponsors to direct the development of biological research toward a shared vision of science and society. She analyzes the motivations and mechanisms empowering this vision by focusing on two key institutions: Caltech and its sponsor, the Rockefeller Foundation. Her study explores a number of vital, sometimes controversial topics, among them the role of private power centers in shaping scientific agenda, and the political dimensions of "pure" research. It also advances a sobering argument: the cognitive and social groundwork for genetic engineering and human genome projects was laid by the American architects of molecular biology during these early decades of the project. This book will be of interest to molecular biologists, historians, sociologists, and the general reader alike.

Modern Biology and Our Essential Humanity

Modern Biology and Our Essential Humanity PDF Author: Erwin Fleissner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description