Questions tagged [evolution]
Evolution is the change in the characteristics of a species over time.
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Do qualia cause effects, and if so, do these effects offer survival advantages from an evolutionary standpoint?
Can consciousness (qualia) cause detectable and measurable effects? For example, would we able to tell the difference between a robot that experiences qualia vs. a robot that doesn't, by detecting the ...
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What is the evolutionary function of desire? [closed]
I am not sure if this question is best suited for this stack exchange, but I couldn't think of a better one. Why do animals with brains desire things? What is the evolutionary function of desire? What ...
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Way to find a middle ground between functionalism and "panpsychism"?
Scientifically, given that we are just pieces of universe (earth), then parts of the universe can experience phenomenal consciousness.
"Panpsychism" says that therefore phenomenality must be ...
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Are evolution and reinforcement learning related?
Are evolution and reinforcement learning related?
Evolution and reinforcement learning are related in that they both involve a process of learning and adaptation over time.
Evolution is a biological ...
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What would the world look like if we only saw in black and white?
Not sure if it's the right place to ask this, I tried on World Building SE and they recommended me this site, so here I am.
Today, lots of objects are built with the "harmony of colours" or ...
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How does the theory of evolution make it less likely that the world is designed?
The theory of evolution, in many people’s eyes, seems to be evidence against a designer God. But why?
Some may point out to the fact that random mutations and natural selection help explain the ...
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Roughly when did humans become attentive to their own look for external gratification
I read that there are objects that were used as mirrors dating back to 8000BCE. If so, it’s clear that humans needed a quality view of themselves at the very least to see what they looked like.
Is ...
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Is physical attractiveness subjective? [closed]
At one level, it seems obviously the case that this is true. Yet clearly, there are people who exist that most would call attractive and others who most would call not. So, how is the question of ...
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Do the defenses that science has implemented against a political attack undercut the ability to evaluate teleological science questions? [closed]
A political movement attempted to subvert the teaching of evolutionary science by miming the forms of science, and calling themsleves, first "Creation Science" and then "Intelligent ...
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Are there any fallacies in this argument from unique characterization?
Suppose I have millions of events that I’ve come across in my life. One of those events seem unique in the sense that no other event seems similar to it. Every other event seems to have events similar ...
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Pragmatism vs Truth: Does evolution prioritise one over the other?
Pragmatism:
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found ...
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Dimensional constants, evolution and the anthropic principle?
If I think of a process like say evolution. I can in some sense map the process of evolution to an algorithm. But my point is that evolution in some sense yes is modelled by this but this missed out ...
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Should one abstain from a behaviour because they know why they engage in it?
I'm 16, I don't study psychology in college, only biology, chemistry, physics and maths, but I find evolutionary psychology incredibly interesting, because it's the only psychological theory that ...
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What is the thing which evolves?
I felt puzzled when I heard about the "Ship of Theseus paradox". If we change any part, the whole is not the same as before.
But evolution needs a small change. So:
If A evolves to B., what ...
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Is this a good argument for why societies tend towards maximum employment?
I have sometimes wondered why, in an age of increasing automation, many societies still have "high" employment. And by "high" I mean over 80%. Why, for example, have not an ...
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What's the motivation for organisms to reproduce (in a natural-selection simulation)?
I'm currently working on a neuro-evolution genetic algorithm where I create small organisms with simple neural networks which can move around a 2d space with randomly distributed food. I spawn a bunch ...
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Can morals be viewed an evolving psycho-technological driven by dominant strategies?
So I might be mixing concepts here. But here goes:
In economics we have dominant strategies:
In biology, the speed at which a pure strategy spreads in the
population is limited by its current ...
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Which evolutionary concepts or theories are used to either support or undermine 'perception of free will' as accurate?
NOTE: 'Free will' in this question describes an ability to have chosen otherwise, given the same circumstances.
According to American Scientist, Darwin came to a belief that we had no free will 30 ...
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Is there a name for the phenomenon where a system that selects for one quality eventually leads to optimizing that quality at the cost of others?
There's a pattern that pops up in a wide variety of systems - biological, economic, social, etc - and can occur whenever survival and propagation within the system is determined by how well members ...
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If love could be measured as a physical energy, would it be philosophically / scientifically important? [closed]
Surely, philosophically, this scientific breakthrough is important:
Whilst watching one of world-renowned polymath Gregg Braden's many presentations online, he introduced the principle that the 'love ...
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Does many-worlds rule out trial and error?
Suppose that the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics were true.
Would that rule out trial and error as something that actually happens in reality?
Let's take biology as a case study. ...
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What was the Nietzsche's argument against theory of evolution?
I had read about it a decade ago, but it looks like now I have forgotten his point. Can I know what was his argument against Darwin?
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Is there a theory of evolution that spans naturalism and humanmade systems?
Darwin's big insight was that there are two phases that drive the evolution of species: variation and natural selection.
The term 'evolution' applies to humanmade systems, as well. E.g., the evolution ...
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Is there a name for a philosophy that seeks to increase human suffering?
The vast, vast majority of ethic systems seek the minimization of human suffering as a good, considering it ethical or righteous in some way. Even anti-natalists believe this after a fashion, ...
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What phenomena can give the appearance of design?
Here's a quote from Richard Dawkins:
"Biology is the study of complicated things that have the appearance of having been designed with a purpose."
My question is this. What types of ...
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How does a determinist explain darwin and chess? [closed]
I think the consensus among most materialists is that "living beings" have a common ancestor. I say "living beings" in quotes because I don't even know what it means that something ...
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What should we consider the evolution of the human species?
Nowadays we are living in a world that is emphasizing, in various ways, the concept that technological progress brings to our species welfare.
There are a lot of technological tools that help us to ...
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Can a god ever be disproved [closed]
Given the ability to travel to another universe, meet aliens which would otherwise show the creation of our universe and yet many others and in fact have proof of our creation accidental or otherwise ...
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Causality, Universal and Particulars, Evolution, and Theology
In a Socratic dialogue I wrote published in issue 122 of "Philosophy Now", I have Socrates conversing with a scientist (Moe), on a park bench. Socrates has come down from the clouds to take ...
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How exactly does ethics relate to what appears to be ethical animal behavior?
After listening to Dr. Jordan Peterson's lectures on Psychology of Personality, I found the notion that animal behaviors follow an ethic fascinating. He stipulates that rats will play fight and if the ...
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Is the uniqueness of the human species evidence against evolution? [closed]
Evolution theory states, simply put, that all species on Earth have evolved over time, starting from one or more initial ancestors, to what they are today, through processes of reproduction guided by ...
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Why do people think binocular vision is advantageous in sports? [closed]
Why do people think binocular vision (visual depth perception) is advantageous in sports? Yes, it can be helpful, but what if binocular vision is an evolutionary dead end? Aren't there plenty of ...
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Can biological evolution comsummate?
Can biological evolution comsummate?
In biological evolution, living organisms continues to change. However, is there a point wherein evolution stops due to an organism not needing change anymore? ...
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How can we question someone, for their ethical behavior, if it's the result of an evolutionary process
Supposedly, nature is evolving human minds and its behavior to find an optimal point.
But if "bad" behaviour is nothing but an expression of nature's evolution towards an optimum, how does it make ...
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Should we regard evolution by natural selection as having an overall direction that necessarily led to the evolution of human beings? [closed]
Can someone please explain to me how should I answer this question.
As I understand correctly, we cannot predict the survival of the fittest and bc we have randomly assigned traits, we act according ...
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What is the counter-argument against the argument of design? [closed]
The argument of design has several features, keying on relative complexity and tuning for use, from which one infers a designer. If we find a sand castle on a "simple" beach, which had an unusual ...
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How does biological evolution work in the block universe/b-theory of time?
The b-theory of time is often described as a film reel where the whole reel exists, but we can only view one frame at a time.
The problem I have with this analogy is that it starts to feel too ...
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Is consciousness (as we perceive it) what really separates us from animals?
The last couple of weeks or even months, I'm thinking a lot about consciousness.
I have some ideas I would really like to discuss with some open minded, philosophical people. And in the search for ...
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The conflict of creationism and evolution. How can we know the truth?
the demands of evolution and creation cannot
be reconciled with each other because they represent two
fundamentally different, mutually hostile, and mutually
exclusive systems. They do not ...
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Kant, Idealism and Evolution
I'm certain this question must have been asked many times before, but I could not find an answer searching the archived posts here. So please excuse me as I am new to this forum and might have posted ...
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What is the utility of consciousness if free will is an illusion?
Introspectively speaking, it seems to me obvious that free will is illusion. Thoughts just emerge from background causes, and actions are just thoughts about actions that we have more thoughts about ...
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A quote from Godel to Wang About Evolution
Kurt Godel sent in a 1972 letter to Hao Wang, here what Godel wrote: here
I believe that mechanism in biology is a prejudice of our time which will be disproved. In this case, one disproof, in my ...
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Does Darwin owe a debt to Hegel?
I just realized that Darwin's theory of evolution is very much historicist, and resembles Hegel's notion of an arc of history: evolution is progressive and moves with purpose in an almost dialectical ...
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Looking for valid reasons as to why reproducing and passing on our genes 'actually' matters [closed]
I'm familiar with why we reproduce. But with genes themselves, why does it matter that all life strives to have their own genetic makeup copy and evolve itself to 'exist' in some way, shape or form? I ...
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Nietzsche’s views on human curiosity
I chanced upon Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘On truth and lies in a non moral sense’. Although I’m not technically a ‘philosopher’ (but aren’t we all philosophers), I’m not sure I agree with his views on ...
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Is this an argument about the world or about human cognition?
This is a question about a thesis I have encountered regarding the relation of abstract mathematics ( Category Theory in particular ) with reality and the nature of human cognition.
The argument goes ...
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Does life have a natural or supernatural origin? [closed]
Let us define natural as "can be observed in nature", supernatural as "cannot be observed in nature".
Virtually everyone today believes that all life had to have arisen from nonliving matter. A point ...
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The ethics of evolutionary custodianship
Firstly of note is that the closest genetic/evolutionary family of humans, namely the chimpanzee, also engages in an activity once thought to be uniquely human: namely warfare. And just to forestall ...
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What is the name of the fallacy where one implies something is false simply because someone evil supported it?
Creationists sometimes argue that Darwinism is wrong because the Nazis used it as a rationale for their eugenics program.
We call it a "genetic fallacy" if we try to claim that a theory is wrong ...
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Does evolution always entail progress?
It was Darwin who first introduced the concept of Evolution in his Evolution Theory. However, whenever he and in general people speak about Evolution, I always have the feeling that they connote it ...
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