Book review. Textbook on the Bio-humanities and Environment; Review in English; the book in Russian. ~ CookingFood.Org

Book review. Textbook on the Bio-humanities and Environment; Review in English; the book in Russian.

http://5bio5.blogspot.com/2014/05/book-review-textbook-on-bio-humanities.html

Гуманитарная биология и экология. Учебно-методическое пособие

Новая книга: учебное пособие.

Олескин А.В., Карташова E.R., Ботвинко И. В. Остроумов С.А., Лукьянов А.С., Шульга Е.Н. Гуманитарная биология и экология. Учебно-методическое пособие для средней и общеобразовательной школы, лицеев, колледжей и университетов / Под ред. А. В. Олескина. Москва, Изд-во МГУ, 2011. - 96 стр., с иллюстрациями.

ISBN 978-5-211-06183-5.

Рецензия / Review:

Oleskin A.V., Kartashova E.R., Botvinko I. V., Ostroumov S.A., Lukianov A.S., and Shul’ga E.N. Textbook on the Bio-humanities and Environment; for Secondary School, College, and University Students / Ed. by Alexander V. Oleskin. Moscow, Moscow University Press, 2011. – 96 p., ill.

ISBN 978-5-211-06183-5.

This short textbook deals with a new discipline that is named bio-humanities. This is a name for the subfields of biology that have a direct bearing on the humanities and social sciences as well as modern ecology and environmental science. The book includes seven main sections each corresponding to a specific topic which can be an individual lecture or seminar. The bio-humanities are in the focus of attention of the Club of Biopolitics established in April 2010. One of the Club’s workshops has produced this textbook.

Each chapter of the book is organized in the same pattern. Apart from information to deal with during the lectures or classes, each chapter also contains some questions addressed to the students, their task, pictures, and recommended reading. The authors hope that this book will contribute to the solution to a pressing issue of increasing the efficiency of the educational system, which is an important challenge currently faced by Russia.

It should be noted that this book is bilingual. Each chapter/section is provided with an English summary.

In the INTRODUCTION ( p.9-10) the meaning of the term “the bio-humanities” is explained. It is indicated that this book is concerned with a novel interdisciplinary field that has come into being as a result of (1) interactions between biological and social knowledge and (2) the effect produced by the social sciences and humanities on the life sciences. This field includes interdisciplinary biosocial (biocutural) fields exemplified by bioethics, biosemiotics, or bioesthetics. Taken together, they can be referred to as the bio-humanities that deal with all possible interactions of the life sciences with social sciences and the humanities.

The book has 7 sections which are written by various authors, experts in the field.

Section 1 (p.11-21). BIOS AND LIFE AS A COHERENT ENTITY (this section is authored by Dr. E.R. Kartashova) it is written that The term bios (bioς, the Greek for life) denotes the totality of living beings on the Earth that is believed to include over 1.4 million species. The students should realize that bios is more than just the sum of individual organisms. It is a global coherent entity (“the body of bios” in A. Vlavianos-Arvanitis’ usage), despite the diversity of biological species. Different species perform different functions in the interest of the whole body. Humankind forms part of this body, also representing a coherent entity in itself. Bios is based on the unity-in-diversity principle. Bios as a global system is probably capable of regulating the Earth’s characteristics including its temperature, light-reflecting power, and atmosphere composition, in the interest of biological evolution and the flourishing of the whole body of bios on the Earth.

Section 2 (p.22-33 ). BIOSOPHY. BIOSPHERE (this section is authored also by Dr. E.R. Kartashova). The author wrote that Biosophy stands for the natural “wisdom of life (bios)” that is a result of the process of biological evolution. Thanks to evolution, the structure, life-sustaining activities, and behavior of most living organisms are amazingly well adapted to their environment. Adaptations seem to help them “make optimum decisions” in a given situation, so as to increase the survival chances and the reproduction success. Apart from the individual and population level, biological evolution also works on the level of multispecies associations and ecosystems including the whole biosphere of the Earth. Within these complex systems, their structural parts develop in concordance with one another and in the interest of the flourishing of the whole systems. This coordinate development of a system’s parts is referred to as their coevolution.

Section 3 (p.34-45). PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. EVOLUTIONARY EPISTEMOLOGY (authored by Dr. E.N. Shul’ga). This section is focused on some philosophical aspects.

Over the whole course of history, a number of great minds took an interest in the phenomenon of life as related to humankind, human consciousness, reasoning, and cognition, as well as to the historical development of human culture (all these issues are still being actively discussed at present). However, the philosophy of life as a self-contained field took shape in the late 19th – early 20th century. Its proponents, including Wilhelm Diltey, Oswald Spengler, Georg Simmel, and Jose Ortega-y-Gaset, regarded life as intuitively comprehensible ultimate reality that differs both from matter nd spirit. This field of philosophy can be subdivided into several subfields depending on whether life was considered in biological, historical, or pantheistic terms.

Epistemology is the field of philosophy whose goals are to define “knowledge”, to elucidate possible strategies of human cognition, and to delineate its limits. Of relevance to the bio-humanities, the main subject of this book, is evolutionary epistemology (EE). It compares the development of scientific knowledge (including competition and cooperation among scientific concepts and theories) to that of biological species in terms of evolution driven by natural selection. EE emphasizes the relationship between the evolution-molded behavioral predispositions and adaptations of Homo sapiens and the human capacity to study various objects around us and to generate more or less adequate knowledge about the world and about ourselves.

Section 4 (p. 46-59). BIOPOLITICS (authored by Dr. A.V. Oleskin). The author of the section underlined that A pressing problem presently faced by humankind is that a majority of people around the globe are still ignorant of biology and its socially relevant subfields ranging from ecology to neurophysiology and genetics. This global bio-illiteracy exerts a negative influence on important decisions made by political leaders and the political elites of various countries. In fact, ignoring the social and political implications of the present-day life sciences may result in missed opportunities and cause unwanted risks. For instance, knowledge about bio-behavioral (ethological) predispositions influencing human social behavior can help us mitigate collective aggression including ethnic conflict and understand biological mechanisms of dominance-submission relationships involved in charismatic leadership and political power. Politically important issues concerning GM food, cloning animals and, prospectively, humans, and eugenics require sufficient knowledge of genetic engineering including its social implications.

The main goal of this section is to fill this gap by familiarizing the students with new biological data and concepts that are of obvious political interest as well as political ideas and practices that deal with biological issues. In combination, these recent biological and political developments are summed up in the overarching term biopolitics. Hence biopolitics can be defined as the totality of all kinds of interactions between the life sciences and politics, including both the political impact of biology and the biological implications of politics. Biopolitics includes a large number of subfields; in this section special emphasis is placed on its genetic, neurophysiological, microbiological, and biobehavioral (ethological) subfield.

The next chapter is focused on issues of environment.

Section 5 (p.60-72 ). BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGICAL ETHICS (authored by Dr S.A. Ostroumov). The section starts with issues of environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. In the author’s opinion, the conservation of the Earth’s biodiversity requires a complex system of practical measures aimed at the preservation, rational (inexhaustive) use and management, and renewal of natural resources. The proper attitude should include the conservation of the species diversity (gene pool) of the Earth’s flora and fauna, of the habitats of living organisms and ecosystems, and, accordingly, of the natural conditions required for the development of human society. Biodiversity conservation calls for practical steps taken on both the local and the global levels. On p. 61, the author provided a new definition of the scientific term ‘biodiversity conservation’. The section included an innovative presentation of a system of axioms and principles of biodiversity conservation (the list of 9 items, p. 63-64). Discussing biodiversity conservation, the author put a special emphasis upon promoting of the value system of ecological ethics (eco-ethics) on the global scale. Ecological ethics is based upon acknowledging the paramount importance of preserving natural communities of living beings and ecosystems, developing protective, friendly attitude toward them, and placing this attitude at the core of our present-day outlook on planetary bios. In sum, this section is a unique - concise, innovative and deep - analysis of the issues of environmental (ecological) ethics.

Section 6 (p.73-82). BIOETHICS AND LIFE CONSERVATION (authored by Dr. A.S. Lukianov). This section is aimed at familiarizing the students with the history and present-day state-of-the-art of bioethics, the field dealing with the whole gamut of moral/ethical issues related to living beings including animal experimentation, embryo rights, organ transplantation, and euthanasia, as well as the problems and concerns associated with the recent developments in the field of genetic engineering and biomedical technologies. Special attention is given to the non-violence principle which hold much value both with respect to the above issues and to natural ecosystems including the whole biosphere, in terms of conserving life (bios) on the planet.

Section 7 (p.83-94 ). BIOAESTHETICS (author: Dr I.V. Botvinko). In addition to its philosophical, social, political and ethical dimensions, life is also of interest in terms of aesthetics. We enjoy the beauty of flowers, starfish, tiny foraminifers, and other life forms. The final section starts with a discussion concerning bioaesthetics. It is emphasized that the aesthetics of life is related to its harmony, symmetry, and fractal structure. These properties of living systems convey an aesthetic message to us, which is of paramount importance with respect to the educational system as well as the personal development of young people around the globe.

All in all, the book provides a fresh look on many important interdisciplinary issues of modern areas of research and education. The book will be useful in modernizing education in many field of science and the humanities, at various levels. The book is recommended to both professors and students. A new edition will be useful.

Published online: 22nd May 2012;

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Oleskin A.V., book, review, bio-humanities , biological , education, ecology, environmental education, interdisciplinary, new , Ostroumov S.A., texbook , Остроумов С.А.