Hadi Samadi; Bahar Manbachi
Abstract
While the significance of beauty and symmetry in science has been a recurring theme in the discourse of many eminent scientists, the philosophical contemplation of aesthetics within the philosophy of science has garnered attention only in recent years. This paper examines the perspectives of renowned ...
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While the significance of beauty and symmetry in science has been a recurring theme in the discourse of many eminent scientists, the philosophical contemplation of aesthetics within the philosophy of science has garnered attention only in recent years. This paper examines the perspectives of renowned scientists on the role of beauty and symmetry, revealing a spectrum of views where beauty is variously seen as a hallmark of truth or regarded with skepticism. We propose a psychological explanation for the scientific preoccupation with beauty and symmetry, suggesting that the human ability to recognize facial symmetry is an evolutionary adaptation. This adaptation's byproduct, we argue, is the inclination to appreciate symmetry in domains beyond the original adaptive purpose. Furthermore, the paper explores how portraiture often deviates from biological standards of beauty, indicating a potential to transcend biological predispositions. The final assertion posits that while the pursuit of beauty and symmetry can drive scientific inquiry, it may also impede the attainment of truth. Drawing parallels with artists who have transcended their biological inclinations, we suggest that scientists, too, might overcome these aesthetic biases.
Hadi Samadi
Abstract
This article is an evolutionary defense of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM), which is an approach to medicine that considers researches published in reputable medical journals as the main basis of therapeutic interventions. In this approach, physician’s personal experiences and her intuition, and ...
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This article is an evolutionary defense of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM), which is an approach to medicine that considers researches published in reputable medical journals as the main basis of therapeutic interventions. In this approach, physician’s personal experiences and her intuition, and mechanical explanations for medical interventions are deemphasized. Since the advent of EBM, many criticisms have been made on it. Two of them will be mentioned in this article. First, it has been claimed that the replication crisis is a threat for EBM. Second, according to critics, EBM is based on a kind of extreme empiricism, while there are many criticisms for this kind of empiricism. From an evolutionary point of view some rejoinders have been offered to these criticisms. We will also see how to update the theoretical foundations of EBM in the light of these criticisms. In this regard, a defense is presented that in two cases, medical implications can be carried out rationalistically, that is, by considering general medical theories: first, to abandon or ignore any "seemingly" harmless medical advice; and two, by rejecting unqualified articles. At the end, it is mentioned that although by doing so we may reduce the speed of new data entrance in medicine, but from an evolutionary point of view, this level of conservatism is necessary to maintain the credibility of medicine.
Hadi Samadi
Abstract
By adding detailed scientific data together, more general images can be drawn. These more general images are themselves fallible models that can, of course, better represent a picture of the future than blind conjectures. In the present article, a series of empirical findings are put together to defend ...
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By adding detailed scientific data together, more general images can be drawn. These more general images are themselves fallible models that can, of course, better represent a picture of the future than blind conjectures. In the present article, a series of empirical findings are put together to defend the claim that "the Covid-19 pandemic, by speed up the changes that are taking place in the human microbiome (= the collection of all microbes that take part in symbiosis with human), has intense effects on human physical and mental health, emotions and cognition, and social relationships." This is the main argument of the article in defending this claim. The composition of the microbiome affects physical and mental health, emotions and cognition, and human social relationships, and therefore a change in the microbiome leads to a change in these aspects. The microbiome has changed over the course of human evolution, and this trend has accelerated in the last two centuries. The Covid-19 pandemic could bring about more changes in the human microbiome. In support of the premise, some have been selected and presented from the mass of data.
Ghazaleh Azizi; Hadi Samadi
Abstract
In recent decades, the life sciences have come into the world of narratives and literature with two approaches: the evolutionary and the cognitive ones. The present article, with some references to the second approach, is mainly concerned with the first one. Theories developed in evolutionary paradigm ...
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In recent decades, the life sciences have come into the world of narratives and literature with two approaches: the evolutionary and the cognitive ones. The present article, with some references to the second approach, is mainly concerned with the first one. Theories developed in evolutionary paradigm mainly consider human tendency to literature as an adaptation in the process of human evolution at different individual, group, and cultural levels. These theories are criticized in the present article. Theory of extended mind holds the relationship between mind, body and the world around us very intense. Another claim is that extended mind theory has a particular capacity for explaining literature. As a final claim, the paper deals with Evo-Devo biology and uses its explanatory abilities to explain the role of literature in human life and evolution.
Hadi Samadi; Ahmad reza Moradian
Abstract
Disparate and competitive theories have been proposed to explain cultural evolution, which one of the most known ones is the Memetic theory. Present article claims that proposed theories such as Memetics represent part of the culture to make them discernible by using analogies. It should be noted that ...
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Disparate and competitive theories have been proposed to explain cultural evolution, which one of the most known ones is the Memetic theory. Present article claims that proposed theories such as Memetics represent part of the culture to make them discernible by using analogies. It should be noted that any model including Memetic has been generated by abstraction and idealization and these models are not also necessary in the form of propositions, hence one should not expect such theories to be true. Two reasons are noted in this regard. Firstly, idealization is associated with distance from the truth. Secondly, only propositions are truth-bearer. In the present article, Memetics has been selected from the theories of cultural evolution as a case study, which has been tried to introduce the critiques of its opponents and rejoinders of its defenders. As a result, it is highlighted that culture is highly complex to be lonely explained by an explanatory model. Moreover, no model including Memetics could however, lonely claim for exclusive explanation of culture and the combination of a set of explanatory patterns would pave the way for a better understanding of it.
Mariam Shafiee; Hadi Samadi
Abstract
John Dewey in the art as experience presents an exquisite theory of aesthetic and art, which its roots can be found in his evolutionary and Hegelian views. The book introduces a new look to art, besides, marginally, compares science and art to guide the reader in reaching the author's views in the philosophy ...
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John Dewey in the art as experience presents an exquisite theory of aesthetic and art, which its roots can be found in his evolutionary and Hegelian views. The book introduces a new look to art, besides, marginally, compares science and art to guide the reader in reaching the author's views in the philosophy of art. The present paper seeks to rewrite Dewey's view of scientific realism. In this rewriting, the claim is that by making comparisons between art and science as Dewey did during the writing of the book of art as experience, we can reach to a better understanding of the current debate between scientific realists and social constructivists in the philosophy of science. In fact, Dewey illustrates the continuous interaction of human and the environment, which is neither consistent with the usual readings of realism in the philosophy of science nor with the general interpretation of social constructivism.