A Biologically Informed Hylomorphism

Although contemporary metaphysics has recently undergone a neo-Aristotelian revival wherein dispositions, or capacities are now commonplace in empirically grounded ontologies, being routinely utilised in theories of causality and modality, a central Aristotelian concept has yet to be given serious attention – the doctrine of hylomorphism. The reason for this is clear: while the Aristotelian ontological distinction between actuality and potentiality has proven to be a fruitful conceptual framework with which to model the operation of the natural world, the distinction between form and matter has yet to similarly earn its keep. In this chapter, I offer a first step toward showing that the hylomorphic framework is up to that task. To do so, I return to the birthplace of that doctrine - the biological realm. Utilising recent advances in developmental biology, I argue that the hylomorphic framework is an empirically adequate and conceptually rich explanatory schema with which to model the nature of organism

Rabies on the Last Frontier: A Phylogeographical Look at Red (Vulpus vulpus) and Arctic (Vulpus lagopus) Fox with Respect to Mitochondrial DNA and the Spatial Diffusion of Rabies

Vulpus vulpus and Vulpus lagopus are terrestrial animals that live in Alaska. They are also common carriers of the rabies virus. It has been determined that there are three different clades of rabies in Alaska being vectored by these two species of fox, but it is not clear why there are no endemic rabies in the Interior. We are interested in the migration patterns of Vulpus vulpus and Vulpus lagopus, the spread and maintenance of the rabies virus as a function of climate warming. We hypothesize that there is some element, whether biological or geographical, that restricts the virus from spreading into the interior and maintaining itself as much as it does in the coastal regions of Alaska. This research provides a model for determining how the virus spreads under retreating Arctic conditions, as the globe warms

SUB LEGE TO SUB GRATIA: An Iconographic Study of Van Eyck’s Annunciation

When the Archangel Gabriel descended from heaven to inform the Virgin Mary of her status as God’s chosen vehicle for the birth of Jesus Christ, she was immediately filled with a sense of apprehension. Gabriel’s words, “...invenisti enim gratiam apud Deum [you have found favor with God],” reassured the Virgin that she would face no harm, and the scene of the Annunciation (what this moment has come to be called) has forever been immortalized in Christian belief as a watershed moment in the New Testament. While many Byzantine icons of the Medieval period sought to depict this snapshot in time and commemorate its importance, the most notable artistic examples of The Annunciation began to appear in the 15th century as the stylistic and symbolic traditions of the Renaissance began to take shape. While the works of artists such as Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci have come to generally be known as the touchstones of this early Renaissance period, the talents and contributions of northern masters must not be overlooked

Evangelizing a Nation: Catholic Priests in America

According to the most recent statistics provided by the American bishops, there are an astonishing seventy million Catholics who call the United States home. Five hundred years ago, there was not a single Roman Catholic to be found anywhere in this vast expanse of forests, prairies, and mountains. (Moreover, presumably no one living at that time in what is now the United States had any knowledge of Jesus Christ, for the episcopacy of Erik Gnupsson in twelfth century Greenland hardly resulted in any evangelization of the Christian faith in the western hemisphere.) As the European authorities competed to establish colonies and settlements in the New World, each journeyed across the Atlantic with three primary intentions: to amass wealth, to establish glorious and prestigious settlements, and to spread the Christian faith. In the centuries that followed, several religious orders—perhaps the most well-known of which were the Jesuits and the Franciscans—washed up on the shores of America, forever shaping the progress and expansion of Roman Catholicism in America