Evolutionary Arguments Research Articles

Male Homosexuality: Is It Nature or Nurture?

Abstract: This is an overview of nature and nurture arguments for male homosexuality based on the literature review. This article summarized and discussed both sides of nature and nurture perspectives and how they may contribute to the development of male homosexuality. From the nature perspective, the genetic, brain structure, and evolutionary arguments are included. From the nurture perspective, the birth order and family dynamics are mentioned. Both the nature and nurture aspects seem to play an important role in order to explain homosexuality. It is suggested that for future studies in this field, researchers may explore and compare the evolutionary connection of female and male homosexuality. In addition, the grey matter volume (GMV) in different brain regions seems to be a contributor to homosexuality; further examining the connection between the brain regions function and homosexuality may be necessary.

A neurofunctional signature of subjective disgust generalizes to oral distaste and socio-moral contexts.

While disgust originates in the hard-wired mammalian distaste response, the conscious experience of disgust in humans strongly depends on subjective appraisal and may even extend to socio-moral contexts. Here, in a series of studies, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging with machine-learning-based predictive modelling to establish a comprehensive neurobiological model of subjective disgust. The developed neurofunctional signature accurately predicted momentary self-reported subjective disgust across discovery (n = 78) and pre-registered validation (n = 30) cohorts and generalized across core disgust (n = 34 and n = 26), gustatory distaste (n = 30) and socio-moral (unfair offers; n = 43) contexts. Disgust experience was encoded in distributed cortical and subcortical systems, and exhibited distinct and shared neural representations with subjective fear or negative affect in interoceptive-emotional awareness and conscious appraisal systems, while the signatures most accurately predicted the respective target experience. We provide an accurate functional magnetic resonance imaging signature for disgust with a high potential to resolve ongoing evolutionary debates.

Sola Scriptura and the Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism

Inspired by Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism (EAAN), we develop an argument—the “Scriptural Argument Against Dogmatic Protestantism” (SAADP)—that Protestants who accept the doctrine of sola scriptura cannot reasonably hold that Catholic and Eastern churches are in doctrinal error. If sola scriptura is true and Catholic and Eastern Churches have fallen into error, it is improbable that any Protestant can reliably form true beliefs about controversial points of Christian doctrine, including sola scriptura or suggestions that Catholic and Eastern Christians are in error. We evaluate potential responses to SADDP, considering how SAADP should affect ecumenical doctrinal debates.

Havelock Ellis, Sexology, and Sexual Selection in Post-Darwinian Evolutionary Biology.

This study situates Henry Havelock Ellis's sexological research within the nineteenth-century evolutionary debates, especially the discussion over sexual selection's applicability to humanity. For example, Ellis's monograph on sexual behavior, Sexual Inversion (1897), treated inborn homosexuality as a natural variation of evolutionary mechanisms. This book was situated within a longer study of human sexuality in relation to evolutionary selection. His later works dealt even more directly with Charles Darwin's concept of selection, such as Sexual Selection in Man (1905). Through Sexual Selection in Man, Ellis asserted that sexual attraction stemmed from a physical cause rather than an innate aesthetic sense. I argue that Ellis's best-known historical publications, including his work on sexual inversion, were intended to intervene in the contemporary evolutionary debates. This analysis also identifies a specific point where evolutionary theory informed the foundation of sexology as a scientific discipline.

Another Wittgensteinian response to the evolutionary argument against naturalism

Another Wittgensteinian response to the evolutionary argument against naturalism

EVAAN: An empirical verification argument against naturalism

Alvin Plantinga’s evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN) claims that if both naturalism (N) and evolutionary theory (E) are true, then all our beliefs are unreliable (premiss 1). Consequently, given N&E, the belief in N&E is unreliable (premiss 2) and N&E is self-defeating (conclusion). The empirical verification argument against naturalism (EVAAN) is more cautious and improves EAAN by withstanding a rejoinder of the evolutionary naturalist to premiss 1. EVAAN claims that non-abstract beliefs that are not empirically verifiable are unreliable, given N&E (premiss 1a). This anticipates the evolutionary naturalist’s claim that empirical verifications play a crucial role in peer assessments and sexual selection of intelligence, and that, therefore, N&E makes empirically verifiable beliefs often reliable (premiss-1 rejoinder). However, even then it can be argued that the belief in N&E is unreliable, given N&E (premiss 2), because N&E is neither abstract, nor empirically verifiable (premiss 1b). EVAAN distinguishes reliably verifiable intelligence from metaphysical intelligence and claims that, if N&E is true, humans are lacking metaphysical intelligence. This paper also contains an argument against EAAN, by supporting the premiss-1 rejoinder.

Ultraluminous X-ray sources are beamed

ABSTRACT We show that magnetar models for ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have serious internal inconsistencies. The magnetic fields required to increase the limiting luminosity for radiation pressure above the observed (assumed isotropic) luminosities are completely incompatible with the spin-up rates observed for pulsing ULXs. We note that at least one normal Be-star + neutron star system, with a standard (non-magnetar) field, is observed to become a ULX during a large outburst and return to its previous Be-star binary state afterwards. We note further that recent polarimetric observations of the well-studied binary Cyg X-3 reveal that it produces strong emission directed away from the observer, in line with theoretical predictions of its total accretion luminosity from evolutionary arguments. We conclude that the most likely explanation for ULX behaviour involves radiation beaming by accretion disc winds. A large fraction of X-ray binaries must pass through a ULX state in the course of their evolution.

The B-type Binaries Characterisation Programme – II. VFTS 291: a stripped star from a recent mass transfer phase

ABSTRACT Recent studies of massive binaries with putative black hole companions have uncovered a phase of binary evolution that has not been observed before, featuring a bloated stripped star that very recently ceased transferring mass to a main-sequence companion. In this study, we focus on the candidate system VFTS 291, a binary with an orbital period of 108 d and a high semi-amplitude velocity (K1 = 93.7 ± 0.2 km s−1). Through our analysis of the disentangled spectra of the two components, together with dynamical and evolutionary arguments, we identify a narrow-lined star of ∼1.5–2.5 $\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ dominating the spectrum, and an early B-type main-sequence companion of 13.2 ± 1.5 $\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$. The low mass of the narrow-lined star, and the high mass ratio, suggest that VFTS 291 is a post-mass-transfer system, with the narrow-lined star being bloated and stripped of its hydrogen-rich envelope, sharing many similarities with other recently discovered stripped stars. Our finding is supported by our detailed binary evolution models, which indicate that the system can be well explained by an initial configuration consisting of an 8.1 $\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ primary with an 8 $\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ companion in a 7 d orbital period. While some open questions remain, particularly concerning the surface helium enrichment of the stripped star and the rotational velocity of the companion, we expect that high-resolution spectroscopy may help reconcile our estimates with theory. Our study highlights the importance of multi-epoch spectroscopic surveys to identify and characterize binary interaction products, and provides important insights into the evolution of massive binary stars.

Genomic Phylogeny Using the MaxwellTM Classifier Based on Burrows–Wheeler Transform

Background: In present genomes, current relics of a circular RNA appear which could have played a central role as a primitive catalyst of the peptide genesis. Methods: Using a proximity measure to this circular RNA and the distance, a new unsupervised classifier called MaxwellTM has been constructed based on the Burrows–Wheeler transform algorithm. Results: By applying the classifier to numerous genomes from various realms (Bacteria, Archaea, Vegetables and Animals), we obtain phylogenetic trees that are coherent with biological trees based on pure evolutionary arguments. Discussion: We discuss the role of the combinatorial operators responsible for the evolution of the genome of many species. Conclusions: We opened up possibilities for understanding the mechanisms of a primitive factory of peptides represented by an RNA ring. We showed that this ring was able to transmit some of its sub-sequences in the sequences of genes involved in the mechanisms of the current ribosomal production of proteins.

The Two Times Problem: Where Is the Problem?

Abstract Gruber et al. (2022) offered a framework how to explain “Physical time within human time”, solving the ‘two times problem’. Here, I am asking whether such a problem exists at all. To question the question, I will appeal to neurobiological, evolutionary, and philosophical arguments suggesting that human time does not need to be reconciled with physical time.

Darwin's doubt or Plantinga's conviction? Some failures in Plantinga's attempt to debunk naturalistic evolution

Abstract Darwin's Doubt (DD) – a thesis according to which the probability of the human cognitive mechanism's reliability given non-guided evolution is low – is central to Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism and his suggestion that the adoption of guided evolution thesis is preferable from a theory choice point of view. In this article I'll argue that there are three fundamental failures in Plantinga's argument. First, I argue that Plantinga's argument for DD is question-begging. Second, I point out that this very same argument is not in accordance with the way the evolutionary scientists usually reason. And finally I argue that the replacement of non-guided by guided evolution violates some reasonable belief-revision procedures in the history of science.

Can Rational Reflection Save Moral Knowledge from Debunking?

AbstractIn this essay, I reply to an influential objection to evolutionary debunking arguments against moral realism. According to this objection, our capacity for autonomous rational reflection allows us to grasp moral truths independently of distorting evolutionary influences, so those influences do not prevent us from having moral knowledge. I argue that rational moral reflection is not, in fact, autonomous from evolutionary influences, since it depends on our evolved, pre-reflective grasp of moral properties. I then consider and reject the suggestion that realists can supply an autonomous foundation for rational moral reflection or do without any such foundation. Next, I address the allegation that my arguments have skeptical implications for rational reflection in non-moral domains. Finally, I conclude with a gesture toward a more promising route for realists who oppose debunking arguments.

Evolutionary Debunking Arguments: Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Mathematics, Metaphysics, and Epistemology, edited by Diego E. Machuca

Evolutionary Debunking Arguments: Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Mathematics, Metaphysics, and Epistemology, edited by Diego E. Machuca

The RNA helicase DDX39B activates FOXP3 RNA splicing to control T regulatory cell fate.

Genes associated with increased susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS) have been identified, but their functions are incompletely understood. One of these genes codes for the RNA helicase DExD/H-Box Polypeptide 39B (DDX39B), which shows genetic and functional epistasis with interleukin-7 receptor-α gene (IL7R) in MS-risk. Based on evolutionary and functional arguments, we postulated that DDX39B enhances immune tolerance thereby decreasing MS risk. Consistent with such a role we show that DDX39B controls the expression of many MS susceptibility genes and important immune-related genes. Among these we identified Forkhead Box P3 (FOXP3), which codes for the master transcriptional factor in CD4+/CD25+ T regulatory cells. DDX39B knockdown led to loss of immune-regulatory and gain of immune-effector expression signatures. Splicing of FOXP3 introns, which belong to a previously unrecognized type of introns with C-rich polypyrimidine tracts, was exquisitely sensitive to DDX39B levels. Given the importance of FOXP3 in autoimmunity, this work cements DDX39B as an important guardian of immune tolerance.

Perspective: Is the Response of Human Energy Expenditure to Increased Physical Activity Additive or Constrained?

The idea that increasing physical activity directly adds to TEE in humans (additive model) has been challenged by the energy constrained hypothesis (constrained model). This model proposes that increased physical activity decreases other components of metabolism to constrain TEE. There is a logical evolutionary argument for trade-offs in metabolism, but, to date, evidence supporting constraint is subject to several limitations, including cross-sectional and correlational studies with potential methodological issues from extreme differences in body size/composition and lifestyle, potential statistical issues such as regression dilution and spurious correlations, and conclusions drawn from deductive inference rather than direct observation of compensation. Addressing these limitations in future studies, ideally, randomized controlled trials should improve the accuracy of models of human energy expenditure. The available evidence indicates that in many scenarios, the effect of increasing physical activity on TEE will be mostly additive although some energy appears to "go missing" and is currently unaccounted for. The degree of energy balance could moderate this effect even further.

Samuel Butler's Contributions to Biological Philosophy

Abstract Samuel Butler is usually remembered for Erewhon, widely considered among the best English satires. He also contributed to philosophical biology in works that collectively compose the nineteenth century's finest statement of the evolutionary argument associated with the name of Lamarck. In writing on evolution, Butler was not presenting science for a popular audience but deliberately intervening in the scientific argument about Darwinism. Surprised by the success of his first venture in philosophical biology, Life and Habit, Butler committed himself to the project of developing an alternative to Darwinism, which he did in three additional volumes, and these are the works canvassed in this “delayed book review.”

The case for prioritizing ecology/behavior and hybridization over genomics/taxonomy and species' integrity in conservation under climate change

Climate change reinvigorates two debates: first, about relative roles of taxonomic, genetic and phenetic criteria in prioritizing entities for conservation and, second, on the role of hybrids in biodiversity assessments, as climate-change-induced range shifts create sympatry between formerly allopatric species/subspecies, thereby generating novel hybrids. We argue that rapid climate change necessitates a shift in the ethical balance sheet for conservation prioritization. Here we use the extensive ecotypic variation in a climate-sensitive butterfly, Euphydryas editha, to illustrate a case in which conservation biologists choosing extant populations as sources for reintroductions to extinct sites, translocations to novel sites, or genetic rescue of inbred populations should first select populations with appropriate phenotypes for climate adaptation and preferences for host and habitat and only then, within that group, rely on subspecies identity or genomic similarity between source and target populations. Preferences evolve rapidly, and we show that they differed sufficiently between an endangered subspecies and potential sources genomically close to it that restoration efforts would be doomed. Conversely, introductions from genomically more distant, ecologically similar populations would succeed and hybridize. Evolutionary biologists have argued that hybridizations, whether caused by climate change or genetic rescue projects, may be essential for retaining genetic diversity and adaptive potential at species/genus level. Conservation practitioners, in contrast, tend to oppose genetic change, arguing to preserve “purity” of existing groups. Our example of the role of climate change in conservation of a species with rapid evolution of critical traits and a mosaic pattern of local adaptation supports the evolutionary biologists' argument.

Literary Bioethics: Animality, Disability, and the Human by Maren Tova Linett

<i>Literary Bioethics: Animality, Disability, and the Human</i> by Maren Tova Linett

Convergence or redundancy: alternative views about the evolutionary genomics of character displacement.

An evolutionary debate contrasts the importance of genetic convergence versus genetic redundancy. In genetic convergence, the same adaptive trait evolves because of similar genetic changes. In genetic redundancy, the adaptive trait evolves using different genetic combinations, and populations might not share the same genetic changes. Here we address this debate by examining single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the rapid evolution of character displacement in Anolis carolinensis populations inhabiting replicate islands with and without a competitor species (1Spp and 2Spp islands, respectively). We identify 215-outliers SNPs that have improbably large FST values, low nucleotide variation, greater linkage than expected and that are enriched for genes underlying animal movement. The pattern of SNP divergence between 1Spp and 2Spp populations supports both genetic convergence and genetic redundancy for character displacement. In support of genetic convergence: all 215-outliers SNPs are shared among at least three of the five 2Spp island populations, and 23% of outlier SNPS are shared among all five 2Spp island populations. In contrast, in support of genetic redundancy: many outlier SNPs only have meaningful allele frequency differences between 1Spp and 2Spp islands on a few 2Spp islands. That is, on at least one of the 2Spp islands, 77% of outlier SNPs have allele frequencies more similar to those on 1Spp islands than to those on 2Spp islands. Focusing on genetic convergence is scientifically rigorous because it relies on replication. Yet, this focus distracts from the possibility that there are multiple, redundant genetic solutions that enhance the rate and stability of adaptive change.

Path-dependent productive specialization: Should prematurely deindustrialized countries shift to a KIBS export-led strategy?

The transformation of the services sector and the deindustrialization of most economies have increased support for a KIBS export-led growth strategy for premature countries. However, the literature on deindustrialization argues that premature countries develop non-dynamic services mostly, which casts doubt on the viability of that strategy. This article theoretically and empirically analyzes this hypothesis. Using evolutionary and neo-Schumpeterian arguments, we point out the relevance of the path dependency of the productive structure throughout the complex transition from an industrial economy to a service economy. The empirical section analyzes the importance of the previous industrialization of a country to be a successful KIBS exporter. It finds that countries that achieved a high level of industrialization before deindustrializing are more likely to export KIBS than those countries that did not achieve advanced industrialization. Science-based and specialized suppliers manufacturing are of key importance for the development of KIBS capabilities.