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Toward a Natural Philosophy of Macroevolution

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Macroevolution

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Evolution Research ((IDER,volume 2))

Abstract

This paper understands macroevolution from a general perspective focused upon energy and thermodynamics. Its biological perspective is ecological, more particularly regarding energy flows. The basic image is the spontaneous dispersion of energy gradients, which, while microscopic, entrains and enables the hierarchical organization of material systems, including the living. The paper will deal with the philosophy of development (involving final cause), the dissipative structure concept, the maximum entropy production, and maximum power principles. The origin of life was the origin of detailed informational control of energy flows. Key processes in organic evolution relating to energy flows were the tendency to generate a plenitude of ecological niches, as well as the evolution of endothermy, involving increases in both the size and complexity of organisms. Organisms serve the universe by serving as exemplary channels speeding up the dissipation of energy gradients. In my perspective, the course of human evolution can be understood, not as being a goal of organic evolution as such, but as entrained by a universal development toward thermodynamic equilibration.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Malcolm Dean and Richard Sternberg for references and two thoughtful readers who stimulated useful revision and additions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brooklyn College, City University of New York, New York City, USA

    Stanley N. Salthe

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  1. Stanley N. Salthe
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Correspondence to Stanley N. Salthe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Sciences U6, 4th floor, University of Milano Bicocca "Riccardo Massa", Milano, Italy

    Emanuele Serrelli

  2. Centre for Philosophy of Science Campo Grande, Edifício C4, University of Lisbon AppEEL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nathalie Gontier

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Salthe, S.N. (2015). Toward a Natural Philosophy of Macroevolution. In: Serrelli, E., Gontier, N. (eds) Macroevolution. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15045-1_5

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