The Science and Philosophy of the "Thermodynamic School" of Evolution
This paper was written by James H. Brown, Chen Hou, Charles A. S. Hall, and Joseph R. Burger and published in 2024. In this paper, the authors describe a new paradigm in evolutionary studies: the Equal Fitness Paradigm, which “quantifies how organisms convert biomass into surviving offspring.” The abstract of the paper states: “Evolutionary biology…
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This book was written by Charles A. S. Hall (pictured), Cutler J. Cleveland, and Robert Kaufmann and published in 1986. It integrates and synthesizes concepts pertaining to energy and resource quality, originally derived in the natural and physical sciences, and applies them to human economic systems. It examines how energy is used to transform natural…
Read More “Energy and Resource Quality: The Ecology of the Economic Process” »
This paper was written by Douglas S. Glazier and published in 2024. It provides one of the most comprehensive and detailed analyses of the relation between power and efficiency in living systems. He uses the results of his analysis to critically evaluate the principles that have been used to explain the evolution of living systems,…
This book was written by Charles Hall and published in 2017. It provides a comprehensive explanation of the concept of energy return on investment and its relation to biology, economics, and sustainability, as well as a discussion of the maximum power principle. It uses these principles to provide recommendations for how societies can best deal…
This paper was written by Paul Katsafanas and published in 2011. In this paper, Katsafanas develops a unique interpretation of Nietzsche’s metaethical position based on a version of constitutivism: the view that we can derive substantive normative conclusions from an account of the nature of agency. The abstract states: “This paper has two goals. First,…
Read More “Deriving Ethics from Action: A Nietzschean Version of Constitutivism” »
This article was written by Joseph J. Vallino and published in 2010. It was included in a special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Science, (Volume 365, Issue 1545) that focused on the principle of maximum entropy production in ecological and environmental systems. Vallino argues that there is a difference between…
This book was written by Maudemarie Clark and David Dudrick and published in 2012. The authors provide a comprehensive interpretation of Nietzsche’s book Beyond Good and Evil. In this book, Nietzsche provides his famous argument for the concept of the will to power, the version that applies to biotic and abiotic systems. Clark has argued…
This paper was written by Brian Leiter and published in 2013. In this paper, Leiter provides a very interesting and valuable interpretation of many aspects of Nietzsche’s naturalism. However, given the focus of the investigation on this website, one aspect of this paper does stand out: Leiter’s view of what he calls “the metaphysics of…
This paper was written by Brian Leiter and published in 2000. Leiter argues that philosophers that argue that Nietzsche criticizes moral values from a position that is privileged in some way, using a form of realism or a non-realism, are incorrect. Leiter concludes that in his revaluation of moral values “Nietzsche’s own evaluative perspective in…
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This article was written by Nadeem Hussain and published in 2013. In it Hussain revises the view of Nietzsche’s metaethical position that he described six years earlier, in his article “Honest Illusions: Valuing for Nietzsche’s Free Spirits.” He reviews the different metaethical positions he and other philosophers have attributed to Nietzsche and he finds them…