PHIL 2270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Veterinary Medicine, Ecosophy, Conservation Biology
14 Jun 2018
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“Ecology – a subversive subject” – Paul B. Sears
Several criticisms made against ecology:
1) Ecology merely emphasizes what is already obvious.
2) It attempts to clear up the nature of ecosystems or the environment, but it is
necessary first to examine the components of these systems, requiring other
sciences.
3) ‘Immature’ science (a pseudo-science) and moreover that ecologists
themselves are not true scientists.
4) Ecology is not given high importance in introductory biology courses and
biology texts – and that ecology courses are only offered towards the end of a
biology program as a higher level course that only the ‘elite’ students take.
“What is Conservation Biology?” – Michael Soule
Conservation Biology: field that addresses species, communities and ecosystems that
are under crisis. Goal is “Preservation of Biodiversity”
Conservation Biology vs. Cancer Biology:
• Both are highly interdisciplinary.
• Cancer biology depends on cell biology, oncology, immunology, epidemiology,
virology, and molecular biology
• Conservation biology depends on physiology, biogeography, veterinary
medicine, eco-philosophy (deep ecology), social science, genetics, population
genetics, ecology, etc.
Conservation biology is a field in its own right for 2 reasons:
1) Forestry is anthropogenic, focusing on commercial and recreational concerns
2) Conservation biology is more holistic than the other fields by rejecting
reductionism and being more interdisciplinary
Functional postulates: working assumptions of the science derived from evidence,
theory and intuition
FUNCTIONAL POSTULATE 1: Many of the species that constitute natural
communities are the products of co-evolutionary processes (Red Queen)
Corollaries of fP1:
C1: Species are inter-dependent
C2: Many species are highly specialized
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Ecology a subversive subject paul b. sears. Conservation biology: field that addresses species, communities and ecosystems that are under crisis. Conservation biology is a field in its own right for 2 reasons: forestry is anthropogenic, focusing on commercial and recreational concerns, conservation biology is more holistic than the other fields by rejecting reductionism and being more interdisciplinary. Functional postulates: working assumptions of the science derived from evidence, theory and intuition. Functional postulate 1: many of the species that constitute natural communities are the products of co-evolutionary processes (red queen) C3: introductions of generalists may reduce species diversity. C4: extinction of keystone species can have long-range consequences. Functional postulate 2: many, if not all, ecological processes have thresholds below and above which they become discontinuous, chaotic or suspended. fp2 depends on the following assumptions: A1: temporal continuity of habitats and successional stages depend on size. A2: outbursts reduce diversity (rise in population of one species)
