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Evolution, theory in biology postulating that the various types of living things on Earth have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations.
Biological development, the progressive changes in size, shape, and function during the life of an organism by which its genetic potentials (genotype) are translated into functioning mature systems (phenotype). Most modern philosophical outlooks would consider that development of some kind or other.
Biological psychology, the study of the physiological bases of behaviour. Biological psychology is concerned primarily with the relationship between psychological processes and the underlying physiological events—or, in other words, the mind-body phenomenon. Its focus is the function of the brain.
Biology, study of living things and their vital processes that deals with all the physicochemical aspects of life. Modern principles of other fields, such as chemistry, medicine, and physics, for example, are integrated with those of biology in areas such as biochemistry, biomedicine, and biophysics.
Biological determinism, the idea that most human characteristics, physical and mental, are determined at conception by hereditary factors passed from parent to offspring. Biological determinism was closely associated with the eugenics movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Biological theories. Biological theories of crime asserted a linkage between certain biological conditions and an increased tendency to engage in criminal behaviour. In the 1890s great interest, as well as controversy, was generated by the biological theory of the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, whose investigations of the skulls and ...
Philosophy of biology, philosophical speculation about the concepts, methods, and theories of the biological sciences. The sharp increase in understanding of biological processes that has occurred since the mid-20th century has stimulated philosophical interest in biology to an extent unprecedented.
John B. Watson is famous for having founded classical behaviourism, an approach to psychology that treated behaviour (both animal and human) as the conditioned response of an organism to environmental stimuli and inner biological processes and that rejected as unscientific all supposed psychological phenomena that were not objectively ...
William Sheldon, American psychologist and physician who was best known for his theory associating physique, personality, and delinquency. Sheldon classified people according to three body types—endomorphs, mesomorphs, and ectomorphs—and asserted that mesomorphy tends to cause criminal behavior.
The nature and development of gender identity have been studied and disputed by psychologists, philosophers, and social activists since the late 20th century. So-called essentialists hold that gender identity is fixed at birth by genetic or other biological factors.