Havelock Ellis, Sexology, and Sexual Selection in Post-Darwinian Evolutionary Biology.

This study situates Henry Havelock Ellis's sexological research within the nineteenth-century evolutionary debates, especially the discussion over sexual selection's applicability to humanity. For example, Ellis's monograph on sexual behavior, Sexual Inversion (1897), treated inborn homosexuality as a natural variation of evolutionary mechanisms. This book was situated within a longer study of human sexuality in relation to evolutionary selection. His later works dealt even more directly with Charles Darwin's concept of selection, such as Sexual Selection in Man (1905). Through Sexual Selection in Man, Ellis asserted that sexual attraction stemmed from a physical cause rather than an innate aesthetic sense. I argue that Ellis's best-known historical publications, including his work on sexual inversion, were intended to intervene in the contemporary evolutionary debates. This analysis also identifies a specific point where evolutionary theory informed the foundation of sexology as a scientific discipline.

Speciation, natural selection, and networks: three historians versus theoretical population geneticists.

In 1913, the geneticist William Bateson called for a halt in studies of genetic phenomena until evolutionary fundamentals had been sufficiently addressed at the molecular level. Nevertheless, in the 1960s, the theoretical population geneticists celebrated a "modern synthesis" of the teachings of Mendel and Darwin, with an exclusive role for natural selection in speciation. This was supported, albeit with minor reservations, by historians Mark Adams and William Provine, who taught it to generations of students. In subsequent decades, doubts were raised by molecular biologists and, despite the deep influence of various mentors, Adams and Provine noted serious anomalies and began to question traditional "just-so-stories." They were joined in challenging the genetic orthodoxy by a scientist-historian, Donald Forsdyke, who suggested that a "collective variation" postulated by Darwin's young research associate, George Romanes, and a mysterious "residue" postulated by Bateson, might relate to differences in short runs of DNA bases (oligonucleotides). The dispute between a small network of historians and a large network of geneticists can be understood in the context of national politics. Contrasts are drawn between democracies, where capturing the narrative makes reversal difficult, and dictatorships, where overthrow of a supportive dictator can result in rapid reversal.

Pointer States and Quantum Darwinism with Two-Body Interactions.

Quantum Darwinism explains the emergence of classical objectivity within a quantum universe. However, to date, most research on quantum Darwinism has focused on specific models and their stationary properties. To further our understanding of the quantum-to-classical transition, it appears desirable to identify the general criteria a Hamiltonian has to fulfill to support classical reality. To this end, we categorize all N-qubit models with two-body interactions, and show that only those with separable interaction of the system and environment can support a pointer basis. We further demonstrate that "perfect" quantum Darwinism can only emerge if there are no intra-environmental interactions. Our analysis is complemented by solving the ensuing dynamics. We find that in systems exhibiting information scrambling, the dynamical emergence of classical objectivity directly competes with the non-local spread of quantum correlations. Our rigorous findings are illustrated through the numerical analysis of four representative models.

How to make an inclusive-fitness model.

Social behaviours are typically modelled using neighbour-modulated fitness, which focuses on individuals having their fitness altered by neighbours. However, these models are either interpreted using inclusive fitness, which focuses on individuals altering the fitness of neighbours, or not interpreted at all. This disconnect leads to interpretational mistakes and obscures the adaptive significance of behaviour. We bridge this gap by presenting a systematic methodology for constructing inclusive-fitness models. We find a behaviour's 'inclusive-fitness effect' by summing primary and secondary deviations in reproductive value. Primary deviations are the immediate result of a social interaction; for example, the cost and benefit of an altruistic act. Secondary deviations are compensatory effects that arise because the total reproductive value of the population is fixed; for example, the increased competition that follows an altruistic act. Compared to neighbour-modulated fitness methodologies, our approach is often simpler and reveals the model's inclusive-fitness narrative clearly. We implement our methodology first in a homogeneous population, with supplementary examples of help under synergy, help in a viscous population and Creel's paradox. We then implement our methodology in a class-structured population, where the advantages of our approach are most evident, with supplementary examples of altruism between age classes, and sex-ratio evolution.

Claude Bernard's non reception of Darwinism.

The aim of this paper is to explain why, while Charles Darwin was well recognized as a scientific leader of his time, Claude Bernard never really regarded Darwinism as a scientific theory. The lukewarm reception of Darwin at the Académie des Sciences of Paris and his nomination to a chair only after 8 years contrasts with his prominence, and Bernard's attitude towards Darwin's theory of species evolution belongs to this French context. Yet we argue that Bernard rejects the scientific value of Darwinian principles mainly for epistemological reasons. Like Darwin, Bernard was interested in hereditary processes, and planned to conduct experiments on these processes that could lead to species transformation. But the potential creation of new forms of life would not vindicate Darwinism since biologists can only explain the origin of morphotypes and morphological laws by the means of untestable analogies. Because it can be the object neither of experiments nor of any empirical observation, phylogeny remains out of science's scope. Around 1878 Bernard foresaw a new general physiology based on the study of protoplasm, which he saw as the agent of all basic living phenomena. We will analyze why Bernard regarded Darwinism as part of metaphysics, yet still referred to Darwinians in his latter works in 1878. Basically, the absence of a scientific reception of Darwinism in Bernard's work should not obscure its philosophical reception, which highlights the main principles of Bernard's epistemology.

The many histories of the conflict thesis: the science vs. religion narrative in nineteenth-century Germany.

The idea of an inevitable conflict between science and religion leading to relentless hostility between the two emerged in the nineteenth century and has become a powerful narrative of modernity. Most historians of science trace the origins of the so-called 'conflict thesis' to the English-speaking world, more precisely to scientist-historian John William Draper and literary scholar Andrew Dickson White. Their books on the history of scientific-religious conflict turned into bestsellers. Yet, if we look beyond the Anglo-American world, the conflict thesis appears in new historical settings. This paper argues that the science vs. religion narrative flourished already in Germany before Draper and White announced the warfare between science and religion in England and the USA. Focusing on Germany, we aim to show that the conflict thesis emerged in a polycentric process shaped by various political, cultural, and social struggles. It became a rhetorical weapon for liberal scientists in Germany to oppose Ultramontanism and, at the same time, to discredit their rivals as unscientific, fanatic, or even as 'henchmen' of the Pope. Our paper makes a case for a decentred approach to the history of the conflict thesis, which brings to the fore specific political and cultural tensions shaping this narrative in the nineteenth century.

Creating and Studying the Behavior of Artificial Organisms Animated by an Evolutionary Theory of Behavior Dynamics.

The evolutionary theory of behavior dynamics (ETBD) is a complexity theory, which means that it is stated in the form of simple low-level rules, the repeated operation of which generates high-level outcomes that can be compared to data. The low-level rules of the theory implement Darwinian processes of selection, reproduction, and mutation. This tutorial is an introduction to the ETBD for a general audience, and illustrates how the theory is used to animate artificial organisms that can behave continuously in any experimental environment. Extensive research has shown that the theory generates behavior in artificial organisms that is indistinguishable in qualitative and quantitative detail from the behavior of live organisms in a wide variety of experimental environments. An overview and summary of this supporting evidence is provided. The theory may be understood to be computationally equivalent to the biological nervous system, which means that the algorithmic operation of the theory and the material operation of the nervous system give the same answers. The applied relevance of the theory is also discussed, including the creation of artificial organisms with various forms of psychopathology that can be used to study clinical problems and their treatment. Finally, possible future directions are discussed, such as the extension of the theory to behavior in a two-dimensional grid world.

Evolution within the body: the rise and fall of somatic Darwinism in the late nineteenth century.

Originating in the work of Ernst Haeckel and Wilhelm Preyer, and advanced by a Prussian embryologist, Wilhelm Roux, the idea of struggle for existence between body parts helped to establish a framework, in which population cell dynamics rather than a predefined harmony guides adaptive changes in an organism. Intended to provide a causal-mechanical view of functional adjustments in body parts, this framework was also embraced later by early pioneers of immunology to address the question of vaccine effectiveness and pathogen resistance. As an extension of these early efforts, Elie Metchnikoff established an evolutionary vision of immunity, development, pathology, and senescence, in which phagocyte-driven selection and struggle promote adaptive changes in an organism. Despite its promising start, the idea of somatic evolution lost its appeal at the turn of the twentieth century giving way to a vision, in which an organism operates as a genetically uniform, harmonious entity.

Darwin and American public administration Woodrow Wilson's Darwinian argument for administration.

This research note addresses a gap in the public administration literature by arguing that a political Darwinism was present in the intellectual origins of American administrative theory. By examining the arguments of Woodrow Wilson, this article demonstrates that Darwinism complemented the German political thought that contributed to the establishment of America's administrative state. The application of Darwinian evolutionary biology to politics was a vital element of Wilson's reconceptualization of the state as a living organism. Darwinism was a key rhetorical tool employed by Wilson in his argument against the Constitution's separation of powers. This note finds that Darwinism was present in the early stages of public administration theory in Wilson's argumentation and persists today in the public administration literature. It concludes by sketching out an agenda for further research on Darwinism's influence on public administration.

Gangs, violence, and fear: punitive Darwinism in El Salvador.

This article evaluates the factors impacting support for tough on crime policies in El Salvador. Examining theoretical and empirical scholarly work, we look at how fear, together with social and political contexts drive public appetite for punitive policies towards criminals. We show that President Nayib Bukele is responding to public opinion and has implemented tough on crime policies at the expense of human rights violations and democratic institutions. Society favors candidates who are the "toughest" against criminal actors. Political candidates from all sides of the ideological spectrum tap into the fear of the populace to win votes, leading to punitive Darwinism. We provide an empirical assessment of which theoretically relevant factors are statistically associated with punitivism in the Salvadoran context, using multiple regression analysis of high-quality public opinion survey data from LAPOP.

Health, consciousness, and the evolution of subjects.

The goal of this programmatic paper is to highlight a close connection between the core problem in the philosophy of medicine, i.e. the concept of health, and the core problem of the philosophy of mind, i.e. the concept of consciousness. I show when we look at these phenomena together, taking the evolutionary perspective of modern state-based behavioural and life-history theory used as the teleonomic tool to Darwinize the agent- and subject-side of organisms, we will be in a better position to make sense of them both as natural phenomena.

Relationship between Information Scrambling and Quantum Darwinism.

A quantum system interacting with a multipartite environment can induce redundant encoding of the information of a system into the environment, which is the essence of quantum Darwinism. At the same time, the environment may scramble the initially localized information about the system. Based on a collision model, we mainly investigate the relationship between information scrambling in an environment and the emergence of quantum Darwinism. Our results show that when the mutual information between the system and environmental fragment is a linear increasing function of the fragment size, the tripartite mutual information (TMI) is zero, which can be proved generally beyond the collision model; when the system exhibits Darwinistic behavior, the TMI is positive (i.e., scrambling does not occur); when we see the behavior of an "encoding" environment, the TMI is negative (i.e., scrambling occurs). Additionally, we give a physical explanation for the above results by considering two simple but illustrative examples. Moreover, depending on the nature of system and environment interactions, it is also shown that the single qubit and two-qubit systems behave differently for the emergence of quantum Darwinism, and hence the scrambling, while their relationship is consistent with the above conclusion.

Composite Discordant States and Quantum Darwinism.

The framework of Quantum Darwinism strives at characterizing the quantum-to-classical transition by introducing the concept of redundancy of information-as measured by Mutual Information-that a set of observers would acquire on the state of a physical system of interest. Further development on this concept, in the form of Strong Quantum Darwinism and Spectrum Broadcast Structures, has recently led to a more fine-grained identification of the nature of such information, which should not involve any quantum correlations between observing and observed systems, while the assessment of information proliferation from individual systems has attracted most of the attention so far, the way such mechanism takes place in more complex states is open to exploration. To this end, we shall consider a two-qubit state, sharing initial quantum correlations in the form of Quantum Discord, and different dephasing-like interactions between them and an observing environment. We will focus on the amount of information regarding the subsystem not involved in the interaction that is proliferated to the environment. We shall refer to this as mediated redundancy. We will show that, in some cases, the channel capacity of the subsystems, given these interactions, can exceed that of the fragments.

Quantum Theory of the Classical: Einselection, Envariance, Quantum Darwinism and Extantons.

Core quantum postulates including the superposition principle and the unitarity of evolutions are natural and strikingly simple. I show that-when supplemented with a limited version of predictability (captured in the textbook accounts by the repeatability postulate)-these core postulates can account for all the symptoms of classicality. In particular, both objective classical reality and elusive information about reality arise, via quantum Darwinism, from the quantum substrate. This approach shares with the Relative State Interpretation of Everett the view that collapse of the wavepacket reflects perception of the state of the rest of the Universe relative to the state of observer's records. However, our "let quantum be quantum" approach poses questions absent in Bohr's Copenhagen Interpretation that relied on the preexisting classical domain. Thus, one is now forced to seek preferred, predictable, hence effectively classical but ultimately quantum states that allow observers keep reliable records. Without such (i) preferred basis relative states are simply "too relative", and the ensuing basis ambiguity makes it difficult to identify events (e.g., measurement outcomes). Moreover, universal validity of quantum theory raises the issue of (ii) the origin of Born's rule, pk=|ψk|2, relating probabilities and amplitudes (that is simply postulated in textbooks). Last not least, even preferred pointer states (defined by einselection-environment-induced superselection)-are still quantum. Therefore, unlike classical states that exist objectively, quantum states of an individual system cannot be found out by an initially ignorant observer through direct measurement without being disrupted. So, to complete the 'quantum theory of the classical' one must identify (iii) quantum origin of objective existence and explain how the information about objectively existing states can appear to be essentially inconsequential for them (as it does for states in Newtonian physics) and yet matter in other settings (e.g., thermodynamics). I show how the mathematical structure of quantum theory supplemented by the only uncontroversial measurement postulate (that demands immediate repeatability-hence, predictability) leads to preferred states. These (i) pointer states correspond to measurement outcomes. Their stability is a prerequisite for objective existence of effectively classical states and for events such as quantum jumps. Events at hand, one can now enquire about their probability-the probability of a pointer state (or of a measurement record). I show that the symmetry of entangled states-(ii) entanglement-assisted invariance or envariance-implies Born's rule. Envariance also accounts for the loss of phase coherence between pointer states. Thus, decoherence can be traced to symmetries of entanglement and understood without its usual tool-reduced density matrices. A simple and manifestly noncircular derivation of pk=|ψk|2 follows. Monitoring of the system by its environment in course of decoherence typically leaves behind multiple copies of its pointer states in the environment. Only pointer states can survive decoherence and can spawn such plentiful information-theoretic progeny. This (iii) quantum Darwinism allows observers to use environment as a witness-to find out pointer states indirectly, leaving systems of interest untouched. Quantum Darwinism shows how epistemic and ontic (coexisting in epiontic quantum state) separate into robust objective existence of pointer states and detached information about them, giving rise to extantons-composite objects with system of interest in the core and multiple records of its pointer states in the halo comprising of environment subsystems (e.g., photons) which disseminates that information throughout the Universe.

The synergism hypothesis (revisited): a theory whose time has come?

A major theoretical issue in evolutionary biology over the past two decades has concerned the rise of complexity over time in the natural world, and a search has been underway for "a Grand Unified Theory" - as biologist Daniel McShea characterized it - that is consistent with Darwin's great vision. As it happens, such a theory already exists. It was first proposed many years ago in The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution, and it involves an economic (or perhaps bioeconomic) theory of complexity. Simply stated, cooperative interactions of various kinds, however they may occur, can produce novel combined effects - synergies - with functional advantages that may, in turn, become direct causes of natural selection. In other words, the Synergism Hypothesis is a theory about the unique combined effects produced by the relationships between things. I refer to it as Holistic Darwinism; it is entirely con - sistent with natural selection theory, properly understood. Because the Synergism Hypothesis was first proposed during a time when the genecentric, neo-Darwinist paradigm was domi nant in evolutionary biology, it was largely overlooked. But times have changed. Biologist Richard Michod has concluded that "cooperation is now seen as the primary creative force behind ever greater levels of complexity and organization in all of biology." And Martin Nowak has called cooperation "the master architect of evolution." Here I will revisit this theory in the light of the many theoretical developments and research findings in recent years that are supportive of it, including the role of symbiogenesis in evolution, the phenomenon of hybridization, lateral gene transfer in prokaryotes, "developmental plasticity" (evo-devo), epigenetic inheritance, the role of behaviour (and teleonomy) in evolution, and gene-culture coevolution. The Synergism Hypothesis is especially relevant to the evolution of humankind.

A degenerative process underlying hierarchic transitions in evolution.

This paper describes an evolutionary process likely involved in hierarchic transitions in biological evolution at many levels, from genetics to social organization. It is related to the evolutionary process described as contingent neutral evolution (CNE). It involves a sequence of stages initiated by the spontaneous appearance of functional redundancy. This redundancy can be the result of gene duplication, symbiosis, cell-cell interactions, environmental supports, etc. The availability of redundant sources of biological functionality relaxes purifying selection and allows degenerative changes to accumulate in one or more of the duplicates, potentially degrading or otherwise fractionating its function. This degeneration will be effectively neutral so long as another maintains functional integrity. Sexual recombination can potentially sample different combinations of these sub functional alternatives, with the result that favorable synergistic interactions between independently degenerate duplicates will have a non-negligible probability of being uncovered. The expression of such a synergistic combinatorial effect will result in the irreversible degradation of any remaining autonomous functionality, thereby initiating selection to prevent breakup of co-dependency. This becomes relevant to the evolution of hierarchic transitions when two or more organisms reciprocally duplicate functions that each other requires. If the resulting relaxation of selection reliably persists for an extended evolutionary period it will tend to produce complementary degenerative effects in each organism, leading to their irreversible codependency and purifying selection to avoid loss of integrity of their higher order functional unity. This provides a partial inversion of Darwinian logic that explains how the potential costs of the loss of organism autonomy can be mitigated, enabling the incremental transition to a synergistic higher order unit of evolution.

The scientific reputation(s) of John Lubbock, Darwinian gentleman.

John Lubbock (1834-1913) was born to social and scientific status. His father was a wealthy banker and a respected astronomer. Lubbock's youthful enthusiasm for insects was encouraged by Charles Darwin who lived only two miles from the Lubbock family estate, and Darwin mentored him as his interest in natural history developed. My focus is Lubbock's contemporary reputation, over many different areas of science and over time. In comparing Lubbock's reputation across scientific specialities, John Clark's thesis, that Lubbock's entomology was considered more important than his archaeology and anthropology is confirmed; his botany and geology shown to be less respected. A second consideration, alluded to by "gentleman" in the title, is the extent to which Lubbock's success and reputation was due to his high social position - he was Sir John, fourth baronet, from 1865 and Lord Avebury from 1900. Third, the ways in which Lubbock was "Darwinian" or "non-Darwinian" by both contemporary and modern criteria are analysed. Fourth, in following the course of Lubbock's career, contradictory assessments of the significance of his research appear which involve diverse valuations of specialist/popular, theoretical/experimental and original/synthesizing scientific work. Countering the many derogatory associations of "popular science," his lectures and books on topics of "general interest" for "general" readers were widely praised.

When the "satisficing" is the new "fittest": how a proscriptive definition of adaptation can change our view of cognition and culture.

Since Darwin's theory of evolution, adaptationism is frequently invoked to explain cognition and cultural processes. Adaptationism can be described as a prescriptive view, as phenotypes that do not optimize fitness should not be selected by natural selection. From an epistemological perspective, the principle of a prescriptive definition of adaptation seems incompatible with recent advances in epigenetics, evolutionary developmental biology, ethology, and genomics. From these challenges, a proscriptive view of adaptation has emerged, postulating that phenotypes that are not deleterious will be evolutionary maintained. In this epistemological investigation, we examine how the shift from adaptationism to a proscriptive view changes our view of cognition and culture. We argue that, while adaptationism leads to cognitivism and a view of culture as strategies to optimize overall fitness, the proscriptive definition favors embodied theories of cognition and a view of culture as the cumulative diffusion of behaviors allowed by the constraints of reproduction.

The shadow of "the Eclipse of Darwinism": the problem of evolutionary mechanisms in Republican China, 1910s-1930s.

How did Chinese scientific intellectuals react to the dispute over evolutionary mechanisms during the period of the "eclipse of Darwinism"? This is my focal question. To answer it, I survey the attitudes of three groups of people toward the debate in the early decades of the twentieth century: Chinese paleontologists and their general embrace of the anti-Darwinian position, a group of non-specialists (or semi-specialists) and their assertion of a "revival of Lamarckism," and the American-trained Chinese biologists and their typical agnostic stance toward the antagonism between Darwinism and the mutation theory. Different concerns or motivations underlay these three different stances. There were also interesting attempts by biologists like Chen Zhen to exploit some recreational breeding traditions like goldfish breeding peculiar to China to participate in the dispute more directly.

Struggling for survival: The popularization of Darwinism and the elite's fight for power in Franco's Spain (1939-1967).

In the late 1940s in Spain, a group of young scholars, most of them newly appointed university lecturers, gained control of Arbor, the promotional journal of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC: The Spanish National Research Council), the institution that General Franco had founded after the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) to organize Spanish science. This group constituted the intellectual core of the more reactionary, Catholic traditionalist faction of Franco's regime, and they coveted greater political power, in competition with other factions of the regime. Lacking the opportunity to launch an overt political campaign within a dictatorship, the group started a fight for the cultural conquest of Spain. In this cultural struggle for hegemony, journals, magazines, cultural associations, publishing houses, newspapers, and cultural centers became their weapons. By analyzing this faction's views on and activities within the popularization of science, particularly regarding theories of evolution, this article argues that popular discourse on science played a critical role in the cultural struggle both as a "safe" channel in which to forward their claims and as a tool to gather popular attention through topics of general interest. A covert political campaign was conducted through the popularization of science and this, in turn, fueled the construction of a public sphere for science in a dictatorial context. Scientific popularization became a much-appreciated tool to achieve cultural hegemony and, as such, it also became a central element in constructing and legitimating the ideological foundations of Franco's regime.