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Number
10 (Fall,
2003)
Words,
Mechanisms, and Life pp. 3-4 by Steve
Talbott
One of the most striking — and, at first glance, puzzling
— features of the contemporary scientific landscape
is the juxtaposition of mechanistic thinking with the once-forbidden
but now flourishing vocabulary of information, meaning,
and design. Why, one wonders, so do many mechanistically
minded scientists not only tolerate the use of explanatory
concepts relating to mind and language, but positively encourage
it?
Notes
and Reviews
The Form
of Evolution pp. 5-6 A review of Jos
Verhulst's Developmental Dynamics in Humans and Other Primates:
Discovering Evolutionary Principles through Comparative Morphology.
Verhulst startlingly argues that "the human form is present
in animal evolution from the outset." Reviewed by Steve Talbott.
Assessing
a Pig's Life pp. 7-8 by Heather Thoma
Can we say anything objective about the quality of an animal's
life? Does it matter to a chicken whether it is raised in
the open where it can peck and scratch, or is instead raised
in a cage barely large enough for it to turn around in?
Focusing on pigs, Françoise Wemelsfelder has developed
a unique research method in an attempt to answer the question
about qualities and objectivity.
Feature Articles
The
Giraffe's Short Neck pp. 14-19
by Craig Holdrege
When you look at the giraffe in its organic unity, you find
that the neck is one expression of a tendency that governs
the entire body. In fact, in some respects, the neck is
relatively short! In this article Craig not only sketches
a picture of the giraffe, but looks at the many misdirected
attempts to offer evolutionary "explanations" of the giraffe's
neck.
Qualities
pp. 20-23 by Steve Talbott
There are two ways of looking at the world: one is analytic,
tending toward the quantitative and logical; the other requires
the recognition of wholes through the qualities that permeate
them. Each of these approaches depends on the other. If
there is no escaping analysis in science, neither is there
any escaping of qualities.
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