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PubMed1995

Animal mind and the argument from design.

The argument from design has played an important role in the history of philosophy and biology. Paley, the 19th-century theologian, was struck by the bodily complexity and adaptive fit of animals to their environments; he used the argument from design to prove the existence of God. Darwin, however, provided the natural evolutionary mechanisms that eliminated the need for positing a divine creator to explain the structure of animals; he was thus able to treat the historical problem of organic evolution by providing a historical solution. Today, some students of behavior are similarly struck by the complexity of animals' actions and their adaptive fit to the environment. Like Paley, they use the argument from design, but to prove the existence of a conscious designer inside the head of the animal--the mind. This mentalistic approach suffers from many of the philosophical and empirical problems that plagued similar efforts in the past.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

The Scala naturae revisited: evolutionary scales and anagenesis in comparative psychology.

Recent suggestions that evolutionary scales have a place in theorization about the evolution of behavior have been based on the concept of anagenesis, formerly associated with notions of biological progress. An associated concept is that of grades, often used as units of anagenetic advance. Advocates of anagenetic analysis in comparative psychology cite the writings of biologists Bernard Rensch, Julian Huxley, George Gaylord Simpson, and Stephen Jay Gould to support the usefulness of anagenesis but treat the positions of each of these theorists as if they were the same. In fact, they differ considerably in their definition of anagenesis and in its application to specific issues in evolution. The anagenetic approach is criticized as axiological and frequently anthropocentric. Although the formation of grades can be useful, a sequence of grades must not be assumed to represent historical stages in the evolution of specific structures or behaviors.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1997

The moral ape.

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Animals↗
PubMed1986

[Degeneration theory in psychiatry].

Degeneration (called "dégénérescence" in French and "Degenerationslehre" in German terminology) as a theory of human retrogression manifested by degenerative signs in individuals, was a major factor in medicine and especially in psychiatry during the second half to the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Theories of retrogression seemed to supply conclusive hypothetic explanatory models for a wide variety of deviations from so-called "standard" values of health criteria for neurological diseases, brain disorders and mental diseases. The theory of degeneration, or retrogression, was closely interlinked with the complex ideological pattern that formed the background of philosophy and natural science during the nineteenth century. The theory of degeneration experienced mutual interaction and stimulation by the interplay with various other theories that were "en vogue" at that time, such as the development of positivistic natural science and of the theory of evolution, which in turn gave birth to the theories of social Darwinism, eugenics, genetics and to the development of biological-vitalistic approaches. In contrast with the other fields of medicine, anatomic pathology was unable to uncover any aetiological linkups for the various types of mental diseases. Hence, the theories of degeneration seemed to offer a conclusive concept for the genesis of mental disorders. The concept of degeneration was based on the theory of polymorphism which in turn positioned the wide range of neurological, mental and brain diseases within the descending series of progressing degeneration.

Europe↗
PubMed1975

Group selection, altruism, reinforcement, and throwing in human evolution.

Evolution of altruism by group selection involves sacrifice of some individuals, not to the "group as a whole," but to other individuals in the group. Deme-group selection may establish strictly altruistic genes in a population, but only under limited conditions, and perhaps never among vertebrates, among which apparently altruistic behaviors may always potentially benefit the altruists. Responsive-group selection is a more effective mode of evolution of altruism, conspicuous in man. Evolutionary reinforcement increases the force of selection of advantageous behaviors, including altruistic ones, by making them pleasant or rewarding. It is probably involved also in ecological habitat selection, and may be the source of many human emotions, including esthetic ones. Throwing (of stones and weapons) exemplifies both the possible importance of a difficult-to-measure evolutionary factor and the role of reinforcement; in human evolution throwing may have been decisive in food-getting and fighting, in shifting emphasis from brute force to skill, and in inducing evolution of a brain able to handle three-body geometric problems precisely and thus preadapted for more complex functions.

Anthropology, Physical↗
PubMed2003

The Medical Humanities Program at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

The current Medical Humanities Program at the University of Manitoba has evolved from a series of voluntary sessions into an integral element of the curriculum since its inception as the Human Values Program in 1986. With strong academic and financial support, the Medical Humanities Program has greatly benefited from dedicated leadership and a commitment to ongoing curricular review and redevelopment. The current Medical Humanities Program comprises six distinct components: Clinical Ethics; History of Medicine; Law; Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Palliative Care; and Human Values. Each of these components is compulsory and the first five are tested through examinations and assignments. Human Values sessions are designed to be experiential and to explore the human side of medicine as well as the intersections between medicine and the arts, literature, social psychology, and spirituality. The authors outline the origins and evolution of this successful program and describe its current components, student and faculty opinions, funding, advantages, disadvantages, and anticipated growth.

Curriculum↗
PubMed2003

Adoption as an offspring strategy to reduce ectoparasite exposure.

Adoption occurs frequently in colonial species where both the cost of parasitism and the opportunity for dependent young to find a foster family are typically high. Because ectoparasites show highly aggregated distributions among colony members, we tested two central predictions of the novel hypothesis that adoption is driven by selection on young to reduce ectoparasite load: first, that nest-based ectoparasites cause offspring to seek adoption, and second, that an individual's parasite load will be reduced after it has been adopted. In agreement with these predictions, experimentally infested Alpine swift Apus melba offspring sought adoption significantly more often and at an earlier stage than young kept free of ectoparasitic louse-flies. Second, the parasite load of experimentally infested young was reduced after adoption via a redistribution of ectoparasites among the foster family members. Our findings emphasize what we believe to be a novel role for parasites in the evolution of adoption and, by extension, in the emergence of social interactions.

Adoption↗
PubMed1999

Anti-predator behaviour changes following an aggressive encounter in the lizard Tropidurus hispidus

Avoiding predators may conflict with territorial defence because a hiding territorial resident is unable to monitor its territory or defend it from conspecific intrusions. With persistent intruders, the presence of an intruder in the near past can indicate an increased probability of future intrusions. Therefore, following a conspecific-intrusion, territorial residents should minimize costs from future intrusions at the cost of higher predation risks. I conducted experiments with males of the territorial lizard Tropidurus hispidus recording approach distance (distance between predator and prey when the prey escapes) and time to re-emergence from a refuge after hiding. Past aggressive interactions affected anti-predator behaviour: lizards re-emerged sooner (compared to a control) when the predator attacked 5 min after an aggressive encounter. If the predator attacked while an aggressive encounter was ongoing, there was also a reduction in approach distance. The results are consistent with an economic hypothesis which predicts that T. hispidus incur greater predation risks to minimize future territorial intrusion; additionally they show that the effects of past and ongoing aggressive interactions are different, consistent with the minimization of present intrusion costs. These results are relevant for studies of the changes in aggressive behaviour due to changes in the social environment and for studies of the costs and (co) evolution of aggressive and anti-predator strategies.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1995

Population growth: a comparison of evolutionary views.

"Economists are divided about population growth: the pessimism of neo-Malthusians contrasts strongly with the optimism of cornucopians. Despite their differences, however, both schools of thought reject economic orthodoxy and prefer evolutionary forms of theory. Their interpretations of evolution are different: the neo-Malthusians appeal to the entropy law, whereas the cornucopians emphasize human creativity expressed through markets. [The author argues] that both schools are right to adopt an evolutionary outlook, but that they are too restrictive in their conception of evolution. A more complete evolutionary view, which allows properly for social institutions, could give a more balanced account of population growth."

Demography↗
PubMed1991

Different reproductive strategies in males and females.

The claim for a connection between stressful, unstable childhood environments and early pubertal maturation has only modest empirical support. However, granting the claim for purposes of discussion, and taking an evolutionary perspective, it is argued here that early puberty need not imply a shift from a "quality" toward a "quantity" reproductive strategy. Indeed, for females to make such a shift when they cannot count on secure pair bonding or paternal investment from a male would not serve their inclusive fitness interests; indeed, probably the reverse. Delayed puberty among juveniles with secure, long-continued bonds with the parental generation may serve a different evolutionary function: to minimize inbreeding. Nonevolutionary factors are more than adequate to account for precocious sexuality in individuals with stressful childhood histories.

Animals↗