* Offers an integrating framework for natural philosophy
* Connects biological and physical evolution through novel theory, elaborating an extended evolutionary synthesis
* Analyses science from a philosophical perspective and looks at philosophy from a scientific perspective

More at: link.springer.com

Embark on a riveting journey through the study of social complexity with The Atlas of Social Complexity. Over three decades of scientific exploration unfold, unravelling the enigmatic threads that compose the fabric of society. From the dance of bacteria, to human-machine interactions, to the ever-shifting dynamics of power in social networks, this Atlas maps the evolution of our understanding of social complexity.

Brian Castellani’s and Lasse Gerrits’ Atlas is not merely retrospective. It is a compass pointing to uncharted territories: new directions for research and intellectual debate. With wit and insight, they invite the reader to ponder unanswered questions, taking them on a quest for alternative ways to understand the intricate complexities of societies.

The Atlas of Social Complexity is a thrilling expedition into the heart of what makes us human: from cognition, emotion, consciousness, the dynamics of human psychology, to social networks, collective behaviour, politics and governance, technology and planning, and the practice of social interventions. The Atlas also visits cross-cutting themes such as intersectionality, configurational complexity, and research methods.

Organised around six transdisciplinary themes and twenty-four topics the Atlas is an invaluable resource for all social science and complexity science scholars and students interested in new ideas and new ways of working in social complexity. It paves the way for the next generation of research in the study of social complexity.

Read the full article at: www.e-elgar.com

There are many books and articles that outline the findings made by existing complexity science. But there are almost none that identify how you can develop the thinking that was used to produce those findings. None show how individuals can develop the higher cognition that will be necessary if they are to contribute to the emergence of a genuine science of complexity.

In contrast, this book sets out specifically to provide methods and practices for developing higher cognition.

The book argues that the ability to construct and utilize mental models of complex phenomena is essential if humanity is to overcome the existential challenges that currently threaten the survival of human civilization on Earth. Furthermore, it argues that this metasystemic cognition is essential for the development of a genuine science of complexity – the book makes the case that the analytical/rational cognition that underpins current mainstream science is largely limited to generating only mechanistic reductions of complex phenomena.

The book recognises that most potential readers are likely to be highly skeptical about its claims to enable the scaffolding of metasystemic cognition. The website for the book attempts to dispel this skepticism by making the first chapter of the book freely available. This chapter is designed to evoke the realization that the methods detailed by the book are plausible, and that currently almost no one uses the methods systematically, despite their enormous potential.

The website for the book is HumanSuperIntelligenceBook.com

A panoramic view of the evolution of life on our planet, from its origins to humanity’s future.

In A History of Bodies, Brains, and Minds, Francisco Aboitiz provides a brief history of life, the brain, and cognition, from the earliest living beings to our own species. The author proceeds from the basic premise that, since evolution by natural selection is the process underlying the origin of life and its evolution on earth, the brain—and thus our minds—must also be the result of biological evolution. The aim of this book is to narrate how animal bodies came to be built with their nervous systems and how our species evolved with culture, technology, language, and consciousness.

The book is organized in four parts, each delving into a different aspect of evolutionary development:
• Definitions lays the groundwork by discussing the principles of biological evolution and explores the definition and mechanisms of life itself.
• Beginnings describes the origins of life, starting from the emergence of the first cells to the development of neurons as the building blocks for brain networks.
• The Rise of Bodies and Brains examines the evolution of animals with bilateral symmetry, the emergence of chordates and vertebrates, and the expansion and diversification of the vertebrate brain.
• A Singular Ape explores Homo sapiens and our species’ unique traits, such as bipedality, tool use, culture, language, communication, and consciousness.
Comprehensive and deeply insightful, this book helps us understand our place in the natural world and the cosmos—as well as what the future might hold for life on earth.

More at: mitpress.mit.edu

A new theory of Neurobiological Emergentism that explains how sentience emerges from the brain.

Sentience is the feeling aspect of consciousness. In From Sensing to Sentience, Todd Feinberg develops a new theory called Neurobiological Emergentism (NBE) that integrates biological, neurobiological, evolutionary, and philosophical perspectives to explain how sentience naturally emerges from the brain.

Emergent properties are broadly defined as features of a complex system that are not present in the parts of a system when they are considered in isolation but may emerge as a system feature of those parts and their interactions. Tracing a journey of billions of years of evolution from life to the basic sensing capabilities of single-celled organisms up to the sentience of animals with advanced nervous systems, including all vertebrates (for instance, fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals), arthropods (insects and crabs), and cephalopods (such as the octopus), Feinberg argues that sentience gradually but eventually emerged along diverse evolutionary lines with the evolution of sufficiently neurobiologically complex brains during the Cambrian period over 520 million years ago.

Ultimately, Feinberg argues that viewing sentience as an emergent process can explain both its neurobiological basis as well its perplexing personal nature, thus solving the historical philosophical problem of the apparent “explanatory gap” between the brain and experience.

More at: mitpress.mit.edu