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

Evo-Devo: A Science of Dispositions

Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) represents a paradigm shift in the understanding of the ontogenesis and evolutionary progression of the denizens of the natural world. Given the empirical successes of the evo-devo framework, and its now widespread acceptance, a timely and important task for the philosophy of biology is to critically discern the ontological commitments of that framework and assess whether and to what extent our current metaphysical models are able to accommodate them. In this paper, I argue that one particular model is a natural fit: an ontology of dispositional properties coherently and adequately captures the crucial casual-cum-explanatory role that the fundamental elements of evo-devo play within that framework

Recent Work in The Philosophy of Biology

The biological sciences have always proven a fertile ground for philosophical analysis, one from which has grown a rich tradition stemming from Aristotle and flowering with Darwin. And although contemporary philosophy is increasingly becoming conceptually entwined with the study of the empirical sciences with the data of the latter now being regularly utilised in the establishment and defence of the frameworks of the former, a practice especially prominent in the philosophy of physics, the development of that tradition hasn't received the wider attention it so thoroughly deserves. This review will briefly introduce some recent significant topics of debate within the philosophy of biology, focusing on those whose metaphysical themes (in everything from composition to causation) are likely to be of wide-reaching, cross-disciplinary interest

Two- and three-dimensional simulations of core-collapse supernovae with CHIMERA

Ascertaining the core-collapse supernova mechanism is a complex, and yet unsolved, problem dependent on the interaction of general relativity, hydrodynamics, neutrino transport, neutrino-matter interactions, and nuclear equations of state and reaction kinetics. Ab initio modeling of core-collapse supernovae and their nucleosynthetic outcomes requires care in the coupling and approximations of the physical components. We have built our multi-physics CHIMERA code for supernova modeling in 1-, 2-, and 3-D, using ray-by-ray neutrino transport, approximate general relativity, and detailed neutrino and nuclear physics. We discuss some early results from our current series of exploding 2D simulations and our work to perform computationally tractable simulations in 3D using the "Yin-Yang" grid.Comment: Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos. 5-12 August 2012. Cairns, Australia. Published online at http://pos.sissa.it/archive/conferences/146/208/NIC%20XII_208.pdf Corrected typ

Juvenile Finfish and Blue Crab Stock Assessment Program Bottom Trawl Survey Annual Data Summary Report Series Volume 1993

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has conducted a trawl survey dating back to 1955. Over these forty years methods and objectives have varied according to funding sources and state and/or federal mandates. The present thrust of the program is to provide juvenile indices of relative abundance for recreationally, commercially, and ecologically important finfish and invertebrates. These measures of juvenile abundance are widely used as a key element in the management of the Atlantic States\u27 coastal fishery resources. Estimates of juveniles (age-0) have been found to provide a reliable and early indicator of future year class strength. A review of previously available indices of juvenile abundance for important fishery resource species of the Chesapeake Bay by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC), a federal/state committee sponsored and funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), resulted in the recommendation that, a unified, consistent trawl program should be one of the primary monitoring tools for finfish and crab stock assessment. (Chesapeake Bay Program Stock Assessment Plan, Chesapeake Executive Council 1988). There were several notable results in the survey this year. Two groups of invertebrates were officially added to the collection list. The penaeid shrimp are only of minor significance in Chesapeake Bay, but in certain years (1991) their abundance has been high enough to rank in the top twenty species caught. The squid species of the family Lologinidae have been include due to their overall abundance in the main stem bay (ranked 11th overall), Atlantic coast commercial value, and ecological factors. Both these groups of species were collected in past years but on an inconsistent basis. Other results worth mentioning include a large increase in the scup abundance, over six times that of the previous year. Although older summer flounder appeared abundant, there was a substantial decrease in juvenile abundance near the historic low of 1988. The blue crab population continues to be depressed, although catch rates were slightly higher than in recent years. In the tributaries, there has been a marked increase in young-of-the-year (YOY) striped bass and white perch which began in November and continued into the early months of 1994. Atmospherically, 1993 included a mild winter followed by an unusually cool, wet spring. The summer was one of drought conditions and record highs, making it the second hottest summer in recorded history. The purpose of this summary is to provide an accurate account of trawl survey sampling performed during the calendar year 1993. Previous volumes of this series have served as excellent reference guides to resource managers, scientists, academics, as well as the general public. Since there are other venues which presently detail specific results of these data (Geer et al, 1993), conclusions are kept at a minimum in order to provide the most information in the available space