Quarks to Culture (eBook)

How We Came to Be

Tyler Volk (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2017
Columbia University Press (Verlag)
978-0-231-54413-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Tyler Volk is professor of biology and environmental studies at New York University and a recipient of the University's Distinguished Teaching Award and Golden Dozen Award. His books include Metapatterns: Across Space, Time, and Mind (Columbia, 1995); Gaia's Body: Toward a Physiology of Earth (1998); and CO2 Rising: The World's Greatest Environmental Challenge (2008).

---

Our world is nested, both physically and socially, and at each level we find innovations that are necessary for the next. Consider: atoms combine to form molecules, molecules combine to form single-celled organisms; when people come together, they build societies. Physics has gone far in mapping the basic mechanics of the simplest things and the dynamics of the overall nesting, as have biology and the social sciences for their fields. But what can we say about this beautifully complex whole? How does one stage shape another, and what can we learn about human existence through understanding an enlarged field of creation and being?In Quarks to Culture, Tyler Volk answers these questions, revealing how a universal natural rhythm-building from smaller things into larger, more complex things-resulted in a grand sequence of twelve fundamental levels across the realms of physics, biology, and culture. He introduces the key concept of "e;combogenesis,"e; the building-up from combination and integration to produce new things with innovative relations. He explores common themes in how physics and chemistry led to biological evolution, and biological evolution to cultural evolution. Volk also provides insights into linkages across the sciences and fields of scholarship, and presents an exciting synthesis of ideas along a sequence of things and relations, from physical to living to cultural. The resulting inclusive natural philosophy brings clarity to our place in the world, offering a roadmap for those who seek to understand big history and wrestle with questions of how we came to be.

Inhalt

PrefacePart I. Combogenesis and a Grand Sequence1. Natural Chapters and Nested Scales2. The Core Theme: CombogenesisPart II. Twelve Fundamental Levels3. A Big Bang Start of Things and Relations4. The Nucleons, with Immortal Proton and Fragile Neutron5. Atomic Nuclei from Mutual Aid6. Atoms with Space-Filling, Electric Mandalas7. An Expanding Cornucopia of Molecules8. Simple Cells Launch Life and Evolution9. The Sexy Eukaryotic Cell10. Multiple Ramps to the Complex Multicellular Organism11. Animal Social Groups Wild with Possibilities12. Tribal Metagroups and Cultural Evolution13. Transplantable Agrovillages14. Geopolitical States, Masters of Acquisition and MergerPart III. Dynamical Realms and Themes15. Dynamical Realms and Their Base Levels16. Alphakits: Atomic, Genetic, Linguistic17. Themes in Evolutionary Dynamics18. Convergent Themes of CombogenesisEpilogue: What About the Future?AcknowledgmentsGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.6.2017
• Zusatzinfo: 40 b&w illustrations
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Metaphysik / Ontologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Atom- / Kern- / Molekularphysik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
• ISBN-10: 0-231-54413-8 / 0231544138
• ISBN-13: 978-0-231-54413-9 / 9780231544139