A third window : natural life beyond Newton and Darwin / Robert E. Ulanowicz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ulanowicz, Robert E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ecology--Philosophy.

Ecology.

Bateson, Gregory, 1904-1980.

Bateson, Gregory.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 196 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

West Conshohocken, Pa. : Templeton Foundation Press, [2009]

Summary:

Thus far, the dominant paradigms through which modern scientists have viewed nature have been structured primarily around Newtonian and Darwinian approaches. As theoretical ecologist Robert E. Ulanowicz observes in his new work, A Third Window, neither of these models is sufficient for explaining how real change-in the form of creative advance or emergence-takes place in nature.

The metaphysical foundations laid by these great thinkers centuries ago are ill-suited to sustain today's search for a comprehensive description of complex living systems. Ecosystem dynamics, for example, violate each and every one of the Newtonian presuppositions. Hence, Ulanowicz offers his titular "third window" -a new way of understanding evolution and other natural processes beyond the common mechanistic or materialistic philosophies of nature. Drawing on the writings of Walter Elsasser, Karl Popper, Gregory Bateson, Robert Rosen, and Alfred North Whitehead, as well as his own experience as a theoretical ecologist, Ulanowicz offers a new set of process-based axioms for how nature behaves.

His fresh perspective adds a much-needed new voice to the discussion.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

2 Two Open Windows on Nature 13

3 How Can Things Truly Change? 40

4 How Can Things Persist? 57

5 Agency in Evolutionary Systems 91

6 An Ecological Metaphysic 115

7 The View out the Window 150.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-184) and indexes.

ISBN:

9781599471549

159947154X

OCLC:

256766618