Evolving Systems Course: PGnotes20
Making sense of ourselves in an evolving universe
Paul's notes - Session 20
Course subject: evolution (physical, biological, cultural, individual)
Course method: co-evolution, co-constructive inquiry, evolving by telling/hearing each other's stories, using them to create new ones, individually and collectively = co-constructive dialogue
Course arrangements:
- Thoughts from this week's discussion in forum by Monday evening.
- Paper for Wednesday: essay based on discussion/reading/thoughts about the brain as the site of story construction; usefulnesses/problems/questions?
- For Thursday discussion: Illusions, ambiguous figures, and impossible figures: informed guessing and beyond
- Individual meetings
| Thursdays | Group A | Group B |
| 9 am | Elisa | Genesis |
| 9:30 | Aijingwen | Julie |
| 2:30 | Ilana | Christine |
| 3:00 | Angela | |
| 3:30 | Hillary | |
| 4:00 | Eva | Valentina |
| 4:30 | Mattie | Kayla |
| 5:00 | Carolina | Jordan |
Culture as consequence of biological evolution? Addition to biological evolution? Differs from biological evolution in what ways?
 |
 |
 |
| the whole course? | evolution biological and cultural: similarities and differences? | fashion: a test case of cultural evolution as descent with variation and selection? |
Culture and cultural change
- What similar and different cultural practices have developed in our two esem section meetings?
- What new cultural practices might evolve from the intersection of the two?
Moving on to individual change
- Biological change influence cultural change and vice versa
- So too cultural change influences biological change and vice versa?
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Despite ongoing cultural change, ongoing individual change, there is only evolution
Individual life begins as babies, what do we start with? before culture/individual experience?
- Alison Gopnik, How Babies Think, Scientific American (July, 2010), 303, 76-81
- Paul Bloom, The Moral Life of Babies, NYTimes Magazine, May 5
"Morality" as another aspect of evolution, biological/cultural/individual? To be continued, after
A look at the brain The Brain - is wider than the Sky - The Brain is deeper than the sea - The Brain is just the weight of God - Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
For - put them side by side -
The one the other will contain
With ease - and You - beside-
For - hold them - Blue to Bue -
The one the other will absorb -
As sponges - Buckets - do
For - Heft them - Pound for Pound -
And they will differ - if they do -
As syllable from Sound -
Experience, understanding, morality as construction of brain
Capgras: story that could be otherwise
