185 | Arvid Ågren on the Gene's-Eye View of Evolution

185 | Arvid Ågren on the Gene's-Eye View of Evolution

One of the brilliant achievements of Darwin's theory of natural selection was to help explain apparently "purposeful" or "designed" aspects of biology in a purely mechanistic theory of unguided evolution. Features are good if they help organisms survive. But should we put organisms at the center of our attention, or the genetic information that governs those features? Arvid Ågren helps us understand the attraction of the "selfish gene" view of evolution, as well as its shortcomings. This biological excursion has deep connections to philosophical issues of levels and emergence.

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Arvid Ågren received his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto. He is currently a Wenner-Gren Fellow at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. Previously he worked at Cornell and Harvard. His recent book is The Gene's-Eye View of Evolution.


Avsnitt(417)

292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience

292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience

It's not immoral to kick a rock; it is immoral to kick a baby. At what point do we start saying that it is wrong to cause pain to something? This question has less to do with "consciousness" and more ...

14 Okt 20241h 10min

AMA | October 2024

AMA | October 2024

Welcome to the October 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Pat...

7 Okt 20244h 29min

291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging

291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging

Aging and death happen to the best of us, but there are increasing efforts to do something about it. That effort requires that we have some reasonable understanding of why aging happens, and what proc...

30 Sep 20241h 20min

290 | Hahrie Han on Making Multicultural Democracy Work

290 | Hahrie Han on Making Multicultural Democracy Work

It's a wonder democracy works at all -- a collection of people with potentially different interests have to agree to abide by majority vote even when it goes against their desires. But as we know, it ...

23 Sep 20241h 15min

289 | Cari Cesarotti on the Next Generation of Particle Experiments

289 | Cari Cesarotti on the Next Generation of Particle Experiments

As an experimental facility, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva has been extraordinarily successful, discovering the Higgs boson and measuring multiple features of particle-physics interactio...

16 Sep 20241h 21min

288 | Max Richter on the Meaning of Classical Music Today

288 | Max Richter on the Meaning of Classical Music Today

It wasn't that long ago, historically speaking, that you might put on your tuxedo or floor-length evening gown to go out and hear a live opera or symphony. But today's world is faster, more technologi...

9 Sep 20241h 6min

AMA | September 2024

AMA | September 2024

Welcome to the September 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by P...

2 Sep 20243h 50min

287 | Jean-Paul Faguet on Institutions and the Legacy of History

287 | Jean-Paul Faguet on Institutions and the Legacy of History

One common feature of complex systems is sensitive dependence on initial conditions: a small change in how systems begin evolving can lead to large differences in their later behavior. In the social s...

26 Aug 20241h 32min

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