Reconstructing the Past: Parsimony, Evolution, and Inference

Book Description

Reconstructing the Past seeks to clarify and help resolve the vexing methodological issues that arise when biologists try to answer such questions as whether human beings are more closely related to chimps than they are to gorillas. It explores the case for considering the philosophical idea of simplicity/parsimony as a useful principle for evaluating taxonomic theories of evolutionary relationships.

For the past two decades, evolutionists have been vigorously debating the appropriate methods that should be used in systematics, the field that aims at reconstructing phylogenetic relationships among species. This debate over phylogenetic inference, Elliott Sober observes, raises broader questions of hypothesis testing and theory evaluation that run head on into long standing issues concerning simplicity/parsimony in the philosophy of science.

Sober treats the problem of phylogenetic inference as a detailed case study in which the philosophical idea of simplicity/parsimony can be tested as a principle of theory evaluation. Bringing together philosophy and biology, as well as statistics, Sober builds a general framework for understanding the circumstances in which parsimony makes sense as a tool of phylogenetic inference. Along the way he provides a detailed critique of parsimony in the biological literature, exploring the strengths and limitations of both statistical and nonstatistical cladistic arguments.

Customer Reviews:

Parsimony & assumptions about the world.......2002-12-08

Sober has spent much of his academic life trying to figure out why we prefer the most simple explanations in science and what the underlying empirical assumptions of such a preference are. In "Reconstructing the Past", he takes on to advance the discussion of parsimony as an inferential method in systematics, focussing on the discussion among Farris and Felsenstein throughout the 70s & 80s. Sober is (in my opinion) a very sophiscated empiricist philosopher, so he attempts to motivate an argument in favor of parsimony, yet adopts a likelihood-kind of solution to the problem of phylogeny reconstruction - the so-called "Smith/Quackdoodle Theorem." Whether this particular solution will advance our understanding of systematics remains to be seen, yet I consider this book invaluable in another sense: it drives home very convincingly the claim that parsimony has no a priori justification in systematics. Rather, using parsimony reliably requires that we make some approximately correct inference about the abundance and directionality of homoplasy in cladistic characters. Sober interprets Felsenstein's seminal 1978 paper (about "positively misleading" parsimony) philosophically. That is, if we can conceive hypothetical examples in which parsimony fails, this must mean that using parsimony cannot be deductively valid as some Popper-oriented cladists have tried to argue. This doesn't mean in any way that parsimony shouldn't be used, but rather that using parsimony must have an a posteriori, inductive justification. I believe that these widely ignored insights will eventually have an impact on the current debate between cladists and likelihoodist. If you are interested in the conceptual aspects of this debate, Sober's book is a must.

Reconstructing the Past: Parsimony, Evolution, and Inference

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Reconstructing the Past: Parsimony, Evolution, and Inference
Elliott Sober
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQI2X2

Book Description

with a short biography by Kenneth Manning

Book Description

Overall this book is a paradigm-breaking book for science in that it reveals in some detail a viable larger perspective and framework for scientific description of nature and human evolvement in that framework. It is also a conscious-raising book and a hope-raising book for humanity in that it shows people how to use their own intentionality to bring about...beneficial...changes...in their own bodies. Such changes naturally lead to significant growth in the individual's consciousness.

Customer Reviews:

Tiller Quantifies - .......2007-07-31

William Tiller has stepped out of the safe paradigm of current thinking in physics and has presented a way to describe quantitatively the consciousness/intention contribution to reality. This is cutting edge theory and the theory will indeed evolve as paranormal phenomena are studied more extensively. Before any scientific theory needs to be developed, observed phenomena, to be explained by such theory, must be verified in replicated experiments and/or measurements. Such verification indeed exists. To get added perspective on how the scientific method has verified paranormal phenomena exhibited in controlled experiments, any reader with a skeptical leaning needs to read some of Dean Radin's books, in particular, "Entangled Minds". Then, with an updated mindset, such skeptic should reread Tiller's book.

Now I understand.......2006-11-05

I am a retired Psychophysiologist who specialized in Biofeedback. There were 52 different MDs referring their "patients" to me for mostly stress disorders. These "patients" would learn to change their physiology without medications and when the referring physician asked how they did this, I had no ready answer.

FINALLY, I can answer this question using the very language these MDs were trained to use. Dr Tiller and associates have provided us with a model for reality which is simple, yet profound. WE have a significant role to play in the physical structure of things. What we need to do is to carefully look at the vacuum (space) and understand that WE do indeed have a profound influence on it's structure. When the vacuum changes, so does "material" structure.

Human Intention is the way we can change the vacuum and thus physical matter. We do this by way of setting energy frequencies. This view changes "medicine" from a chemistry based model to an energy based model.

"Reality" is actually a COMBINATION of matter and vacuum, and when we come to understand that WE influence both, our conception of our place in the cosmos becomes more clear. Personal responsibility takes on the two positions of PRO-action as well as RE-action. What is wonderful about all of this is that we are CONNECTED. We are not separate and alone.

What caught my eye was that Dr Tiller and associates have used the very same technologies used in "science" to demonstrate their model. They have employed the same measuring technologies, the same experimental designs, and the same data analyses used by scientists ranging from those in physics to those in chemistry to those in medicine, and so forth. The difference, however, is that Dr Tiller has demonstrated phenomena which can not be explained by current scientific theory UNLESS Human Intention and the vacuum are included as major players.

The model presented in this book does not discount current science. Instead, it expands these models. What is amazing is that Dr Tiller presents his "new" physics in words which we can all comprehend. We don't have to be scientists to understand.

Jack Barcik,PhD

innovative.......2006-07-19

This book, which was a predecessor to Conscious Creations, is much better written and organized. I had a much easier time understanding the concepts, likely because there was an acronym list, a glossary, and because the author expressed the concepts in language that was much less technical than in Conscious Creations.

The book focuses on scientific experimentions dealing with paranormal powers. The thrust of the book is to prove (from a scientific perspective) that human intentionality can affect reality, and it seems that the author succeeds in doing this.

If there is one thing I'd like to see however, it's more awareness on the author's part of occult and magical works, which have focused on intentionality and the application of it to reality for a rather long time. This is not to say he should adopt such paradigms, but an awareness of previous literature can't hurt. Granted he may not feel that as a scientist he can do this, but given that his work is essentially focused on proving that intentionality affects reality, it'd be good for him to consider the previous perspectives on it.

spine-tingling exploration of a model for unseen energies.......2005-12-12

I just finished re-reading this book and it sends chills down my spine. William Tiller has devoted his career to trying to systematically uncover a scientifically verifiable model of the unseen energies tapped into by yogis, occult, mystics and saints. It is not for the faint of heart since you have to wade through (or skim over) loads of technical jargon, but if you have felt these energies in any capacity yourself, this will give you a good overview of the state of the art in scientific observation of these phenomena and will verify your intuition about the reality the sensations you have experienced.

Fascinating but over my head.......2005-09-26

Having studied college-level physics, biology, chemistry and calculus many years ago, I thought I would have a bit more than just the fundamental knowledge necessary to understand the scientific language and ideas presented in this book. However, I had to quickly turn pages because I was unable to comprehend most of the ideas. It was a shame because I am deeply intrigued by the topic and was looking for something that would further explain some of my questions. It's likely I took on more than I could chew as the average layman, but I was under the impression upon buying it that a science-minded person could decipher 80% of it. Nevertheless, I will probe even deeper into the subject -- Tiller's book did not cause my interest to wane.

Amazon.com

It's shocking how little has changed between the races in this country since 1963, when James Baldwin published this coolly impassioned plea to "end the racial nightmare." The Fire Next Time--even the title is beautiful, resonant, and incendiary. "Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?" Baldwin demands, flicking aside the central race issue of his day and calling instead for full and shared acceptance of the fact that America is and always has been a multiracial society. Without this acceptance, he argues, the nation dooms itself to "sterility and decay" and to eventual destruction at the hands of the oppressed: "The Negroes of this country may never be able to rise to power, but they are very well placed indeed to precipitate chaos and ring down the curtain on the American dream."

Baldwin's seething insights and directives, so disturbing to the white liberals and black moderates of his day, have become the starting point for discussions of American race relations: that debasement and oppression of one people by another is "a recipe for murder"; that "color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality"; that whites can only truly liberate themselves when they liberate blacks, indeed when they "become black" symbolically and spiritually; that blacks and whites "deeply need each other here" in order for America to realize its identity as a nation.

Yet despite its edgy tone and the strong undercurrent of violence, The Fire Next Time is ultimately a hopeful and healing essay. Baldwin ranges far in these hundred pages--from a memoir of his abortive teenage religious awakening in Harlem (an interesting commentary on his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain) to a disturbing encounter with Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. But what binds it all together is the eloquence, intimacy, and controlled urgency of the voice. Baldwin clearly paid in sweat and shame for every word in this text. What's incredible is that he managed to keep his cool. --David Laskin

Book Description

A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle...all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.

Customer Reviews:

Not sure yet.......2007-04-08

I had to read this book, as many people told me if your a reader this is one you must not simply read but own. So I got it and started reading. It never really grabbed me, but I made it through. I plan to read it again within at a different time.

It came true.......2006-12-22

The man knew what he was talking about, when he said the U S would burn because of racial discord.

Simply riveting; 1960s and Today: It holds its power.......2006-09-16

My sense is that Baldwin wrote The Fire Next Time for anyone who had ears to hear, regardless of color or faith or gender. The emotional intelligence with which he speaks is riveting.

Great language.......2006-01-08

Wonderful prose -- use of language.

WOW! loved this book!.......2005-07-23

This man is such an elegant writer, it's sick! And he brings a totally different perspective to the topic of Blacks in America at hand...Sympathy vs. Hostility... LOVED THIS BOOK!

James Baldwin : Collected Essays : Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

A must for the Serious Scholar's library
Like Nothing Else You've Read
A great book -- A worthy part of a great series
review
A painful, powerful experience

James Baldwin : Collected Essays : Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays (Library of America)
James Baldwin , and Toni Morrison
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1883011523

Amazon.com

Writer James Baldwin earnestly championed the civil rights movement in both his fiction and nonfiction, a fact which, coupled with his extraordinary writing talent, assured not only his historical importance, but also his place as one of the finest African American writers of his generation. Collected Essays is a comprehensive collection of his most memorable prose, including "Stranger in the Village," "The Harlem Ghetto," and "Many Thousands Gone." Clear in voice and vision, the essays communicate the emotions of an entire historical movement. Combining politics, prophecy, and passion, Baldwin's essays are truly as thought-provoking today as they were some 30 years ago.

Customer Reviews:

A must for the Serious Scholar's library.......2006-07-22

This collection of Baldwin's writings is priceless because not only is it a showcase of an agile and fertile mind, it also brings together in a single volume some of his most popular and more famous as well as some of his less formal writings and speeches.

Always well ahead of his times, Baldwin's essays remain fresh and as relevant in today's more quiescent racial times as they were during the more troubled times of his life. They remain fresh because they tell in Baldwin's own inimical and elegant way, the deeper truths about our troubled racial past and present. Most of all they reflect how Baldwin used his quick and restless mind to critique the social and artistic scenes of our troubled era: His strategy, reflected in this collection, was always to mine the substance from the subtext upwards. Those of us who try to mimic his techniques can learn a lot from this and the companion volume of his collected works.

At the same time, Baldwin's psychological analysis remains unerring and at least as sharp as, if not sharper than those of some of his French contemporaries, including his friends and compatriots in the struggle, Franz Fanon and Jean Paul Sartre, who also were both not only revolutionaries and revolutionary thinkers like Baldwin, but also a Psychiatrist and a Philosopher, respectively.

No library on the history of race in America or France is complete without this well designed and well-organized volume. Five stars.

Like Nothing Else You've Read.......2005-06-03

A lot of reviewers have talked about owning this book if you are distinctly interested in collecting works by black authors or in black studies. I think that this book is an essential element to anyone's library, in particular people interested in the craft of writing. Toni Morrison calls Baldwin the greatest essayist of the 20th century and I couldn't agree more.
In this collection of essays, it becomes clear that Baldwin has truly perfected the craft of the essay. Not only is Baldwin's content, his concepts of honesty and truth, of light and dark, right and wrong, of white and black, and much more straight up revolutionary, but he manages to have his content reflected in the craft and style of each essay, which should really be the goal of all writers.
More than anything, Baldwin has an exquisite ability to reveal a complex truth in a simple concise way. All of these essays, indeed all of Baldwin's works, have one common thread. And that is that TRUTH is found within contradiction, because contradiction is honest. I think anyone who browses this page should immediately try and at least check this out of their libary (though it's definitely worth owning, every time I reread it I discover new things) because it really will effect you in meaningful ways.

A great book -- A worthy part of a great series.......2004-02-23

I love James Baldwin--I think he's a tremendous writer, so Toni Morrison could hardly go wrong in selecting essays for this volume. All of the selections are excellent. Notes of a Native Son contains a touching eulogy for Richard Wright ("Alas, Poor Richard"), explaining the lonliness and problems Mr. Wright had at the end of his life. Baldwin displays his tremendous range as both a political commentator and a literary critic. The Devil Finds Work, in particular, is very insightful--and several parts humourous.

What I don't understand--and why I struck a star off this collection--is why Ms. Morrison did not include "Evidence of Things Unseen," Baldwin's analysis of the Atlanta child murders from the early eighties. Perhaps Library of America is planning later volumes of Baldwin's works--The companion volume to these essays is his "Early Novels," most notably "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "Giovani's Room." I can't imagine that Library of America would not produce a volume including Mr. Baldwin's later works--especially "Just Above my Head."

This particular edition is well worth having--despite the price. First, this is a good collection of Baldwin's essays, many of which are difficult to find. Second, the Library of America really does a commendable job in paper quality and binding. This is not a leather bound edition on 50 pound paper, so stiff you can't open it and printed so the back binding looks impressive on your bookshelf--this is tightly bound, cardboard cover that lies flat, and is easy to read. The paper is not heavy--but acid free, and tear resistant. The Library of America series are good collections that are meant to be read many times, by many people--these books hold up very well.

I am afraid that Mr. Baldwin's works and opinions may fall by the wayside as time passes. The fact that Ms. Morrison--one of our best and most respected authors--put these collections together will certainly help keep Mr. Baldwin's works alive. But if you have any interest in what it means to be African American--in the twenties, to contemporary america--through even tomorrow--You need to read and appreciate Mr. Baldwin's insights. And you will also enjoy his clear, careful, and pointed writing.

review.......2002-05-10

This book was very interesting and i enjoyed the courage of a young black man to stand up for his rights.

A painful, powerful experience.......2001-10-11

In Egypt, I met an extraordinary American.
"I was born in New York, but have only lived in pockets of it. In Paris, I lived in all parts of the city - on the Right Bank and on the Left, among the bourgeoisie and among les miserables, and knew all kinds of people from pimps and prostitutes in Pigalle to Egyptian bankers in Nueilly. This may sound unprincipled or even obscurely immoral: I found it healthy. I love to talk to people, all kinds of people, and almost everyone, as I hope we still know, loves a man who loves to listen," he said.
"The perpetual dealing with people very different from myself caused a shattering in me of preconceptions I scarcely knew I held. This reassessment, which can be very painful, is also very valuable."
His name is Mr. Baldwin, and I cherish this new acquaintance because his ideas have had such profound impact on my views of Egypt. I wanted to know the people, but as I reach out for them, sometimes, I'm shocked by what I see. I see people sleeping on the concrete patios along the Nile - many of them have migrated from the farmlands because they can make more money for their families if they work in Cairo. But desert nights can be bitter cold in January, and it cuts my heart. Yet, Mr. Baldwin's message is well heeded. The same problems of inner city growth that come with development in Egypt also came with development in Britain one hundred years ago. American inner city schools and slums still reflect this challenge.
Would I have walked into the slums of Chicago if I were there? Would I have strolled through the southwest side of Kansas City or east St. Louis? Would I have walked into the anti-developing city blocks of L.A. if I were in America? Of course not. So why is it that traveling abroad opens my eyes to poverty in America? Why couldn't I see it when I was there? I don't know why this happens, but James Baldwin was right - absolutely right when he said that this reassessment, which can be very painful is also very valuable.
I have been told that the housing shortage in Egypt provided the impetus for many people to move into the spacious mausoleums in the old city graveyard. The international visitors call it, "The City of the Dead," and tourists go there and gawk at poverty creating a makeshift freak show out of human suffering. Then I learned that the housing shortage in Los Angeles provided the impetus for many people to move into mausoleums, but no one goes to gawk at them. In fact, there seems to be a kind of American denial that such things could ever happen in the land of milk and honey.
As I hear of people talking about human rights violations in Egypt, I think of the title of James Baldwin's book: Nobody Knows My Name. I think of James Byrd who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck. I think of the threats of millennium violence that frightened black American families so much that they bought guns and stayed home for the New Year. I think of the tiny city in Texas who voted Spanish as their city's official language and then received death threats from all over the nation. Of course, if you asked any American about human rights violations, they would tell you that this is something that happens in China or Africa. It's a painful realization that it might happen in MY country. Growing up in the American school system, I came to idolize Abraham Lincoln's courage and George Washington's integrity. The universal ideas of human value and dignity that we believe to be inalienable are not, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so wisely told us, being applied universally in our country. These facts go against the ideals and values of our nation - they don't support the concepts of the free and the brave.
"It is a complex fate to be an American," Henry James observed. James Baldwin awakened me to that complexity in a way so subtle, so gentle and yet, so powerfully painful.
He awakened me to the hard realities of the American people, most of whom will never read or digest his work. They would dismiss him. But his vision is not to be dismissed. His writing illustrates that the responsibility of this future lies in the hands of blind people. People who refuse to see American neighborhoods and American people for what they really are. We can't improve until we accept the starting point. This lofty ideal of what we should be and blind obstinacy to what we are is killing us.
"Europe has what we do not have yet," Baldwin said. "A sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, a sense, in a word, of tragedy. And we have what they sorely need: a new sense of life's possibilities."
Egypt has what we do not yet have - a clear and present sense of unity - an admiration for sacrifice for the whole of the group - the nuclear family, the extended family, the community. And we have absolutely nothing that Egypt needs, except, if you ask the younger generation: Nike shoes. In fact, this is precisely what Egyptians do not need. They do not need the destructive, greed-inspiring and greed-glorifying economic development of the West.

"In this endeavor to wed the vision of the Old World with that of the New, it is the writer, not the statesman, who is our strongest arm. Though we do not wholly believe it yet, the interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have tangible effect on the world." - James Baldwin

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The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
Manufacturer: Dell, 1964
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | African American | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0000CM9B2

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Go Tell It On The Mountain The Fire Next Time If Beale Street Could Talk (Black Expression Rediscoveries, Second Volume)

Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1582880824

Product Description

Includes: Go Tell It on The Mountain, The Next time by fire and If Beale Street Could Talk all in one volume

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The Fire Next Time

Manufacturer: Dial Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000F6MFG6

Product Description

A warning to white Americans about what could happen if racial equality is not addressed. A "must" for those students of American history.

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The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
Manufacturer: Dial Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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THE FIRE NEXT TIME
James Baldwin
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Fire Next Time
Jasmes Baldwin
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JVY6C8

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Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
Manufacturer: DIAL PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WE16MA

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