Chance and Necessity is a philosophical statement whose intention is to sweep away as both false and dangerous the animist conception of man that has dominated virtually all Western worldviews from primitive cultures to those of dialectical materialists. He bases his argument on the evidence of modern biology, which indisputably shows, that man is the product of chance genetic mutation. With the unrelenting logic of the scientist, he draws upon what we now know (and can theorize) of genetic structure to suggest an new way of looking at ourselves. He argues that objective scientific knowledge, the only reliable knowledge, denies the concepts of destiny or evolutionary purpose that underlie traditional philosophies. He contends that the persistence of those concepts is responsible for the intensifying schizophrenia of a world that accepts, and lives by, the fruits of science while refusing to face its moral implications. Dismissing as "animist" not only Plato, Hegel, Bergson and Teilhard de Chardin but Spencer and Marx as well, he calls for a new ethic that will recognize the distinction between objective knowledge and the realm of values--an ethic of knowledge that can, perhaps, save us from our deepening spiritual malaise, from the new age of darkness he sees coming.PrefaceOf strange objects Vitalisms and animisms Maxwell's demons Microscopic cyberneticsMolecular ontogenesis Invariance and perturbationsEvolution The frontiers The kingdom and the darknessAppendixes

    The book is structured the same as the previous edition, but every chapter has been updated to take into account recent developments, with numerous new references and figures. New and expanded features include: extensive modifications to the chapter on Movement, Muscle and Biomechanics; new material on respiratory pigments; feeding and digestion in shrimp and hoatzin; plant defense compounds; diving in seals; high temperature tolerance; the patch clamp method for ion channel research; the pineal gland and melatonin. Two-color throughout for clear description and illustration of fundamental principles.

    Structures and behavioral patterns that evolved in the service of discrete functions sometimes allow for unforeseen new developments as a side effect. In retrospect, they have proven to be pre-adaptations, and serve as raw material for natural selection to work upon. Love and Hate was intended to complement Konrad Lorenz's book, On Aggression, by pointing out our motivations to provide nurturing, and thus to counteract and correct the widespread but one-sided opinion that biologists always present nature as bloody in tooth and claw and intra-specific aggression as the prime mover of evolution. This simplistic image is, nonetheless, still with us, all the more regrettably because it hampers discussion across scholarly disciplines. Eibl-Eibesfeldt argues that leaders in individualized groups are chosen for their pro-social abilities. Those who comfort group members in distress, who are able to intervene in quarrels and to protect group members who are attacked, those who share, those who, in brief, show abilities to nurture, are chosen by the others as leaders, rather than those who use their abilities in competitive ways. Of course, group leaders may need, beyond their pro-social competence, to be gifted as orators, war leaders, or healers. Issues of love and hate are social in origin and hence social in consequence. Life has emerged on this planet in a succession of new forms, from the simplest algae to man-man the one being who reflects upon this creation, who seeks to fashion it himself and who, in the process, may end by destroying it. It would indeed be grotesque if the question of the meaning of life were to be solved in this way. In language that is clear and accessible throughout, arguing forcefully for the innate and "preprogrammed" dispositions of behavior in higher vertebrates, including humans, Eibl-Eibesfeldt steers a middle course in discussing the development of cultural and ethical norms while insisting on their matrix of biological origins.

    It extends these concepts to the segregation of genes that cause genetic variation in quantitative traits. Key techniques and methods are also covered.

    Contents: Preface, A Short History of Ethology, The Ethogram: A Behavioral Inventory, The Fixed Action Pattern (Inborn Skills), Motivating Factors, Behavior as a Response to a Stimulus, Releasers (Expressive Movements and Other Social Signals), Natural Models and Mimicry, Reaction Chains, The Heirarchical Organization of Behavior, Phylogenetic Development of Behavior Patterns, The Ontogeny of Behavior Patterns, Mechanisms of Learning, Ecology and Behavior, Orientation in Space, Temporal Factors in Behavior, The Ethology of Man, Bibliography, Author Index, Subject Index.

    

    In his extraordinary book, Mayr fully explored, synthesized, and evaluated man's knowledge about the nature of animal species and the part they play in the process of evolution.In this long-awaited abridged edition, Mayr's definitive work is made available to the interested nonspecialist, the college student, and the general reader. The author has retained the dominant themes of his original study--themes now more widely accepted than they were in 1963: the species is the most important unit of evolution; individuals (and not genes) are the targets of natural selection, hence the fitness of a gene is a nebulous if not misleading concept; and the most important genetic phenomena in species are species-specific regulatory systems that give species internal cohesion.Each of the twenty chapters of the original edition has been revised; six have been extensively reworked. Discussions of peripheral subjects and massive citations of the literature have been eliminated, but the glossary has been greatly expanded. The focal point of the volume is, naturally, the species--a reproductively isolated aggregate of interbreeding populations. Presenting an overview of evolutionary biology in Chapter 1, Mayr then considers the nature of species, their population structure, their biological interactions, the multiplication of species, and their role in evolution.Because of the impossibility of experimenting with man and because an understanding of man's biology is indispensable for safeguarding his future, emphasis throughout the book is placed on those findings from higher animals which are directly applicable to man. The last chapter, Man as a Biological Species, is of particular interest to the general reader. Mayr concludes that while modern man appears to be as well adapted for survival purposes as were his ancestors, there is much evidence to suggest that he is threatened by the loss of his most typically human characteristics.