Dr. Jim reads Darwin, Chapter 4, Part 3
Emergence and Levels of Analysis in Scientific Studies
Dr. Husen reads and thinks his way through Novikoff, A. B. (1945). The concept of integrative levels and biology. Science , 101 (2618), 209-215. This is a seminal article, written in 1945 at the end of WWII, about the concept of emergence and the importance of understanding the concept of integrative levels of analysis. He also clarifies why vitalism (the idea that there's a vital spirt in matter accounting for life), teleologisms, anthropomorphism, and organicism all fail completely because of a failure to understanding the distinction between different integrative levels of life particularly for the human. Why is it that in the 35 million years of data on insects there has been no innovation or change in their social structure / culture? Why, he says, when you compare out 6 to 8 thousand years of known history there has been enormous change. The key to understanding such phenomena is our culture--i.e. Humans unlike other animals pass on our knowledge and techno...
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