Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

92 results

Page 1 of 5

Commutative Algebra and Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry
  • Volume 1, Expository Articles
  • Edited by David Eisenbud, Srikanth B. Iyengar, Anurag K. Singh, J. Toby Stafford, Michel Van den Bergh
  • Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
  • Published online:
    29 May 2025
    Print publication:
    19 November 2015
  • In the 2012–13 academic year, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, hosted programs in Commutative Algebra (Fall 2012 and Spring 2013) and Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry and Representation Theory (Spring 2013). There have been many significant developments in these fields in recent years; what is more, the boundary between them has become increasingly blurred. This was apparent during the MSRI program, where there were a number of joint seminars on subjects of common interest: birational geometry, D-modules, invariant theory, matrix factorizations, noncommutative resolutions, singularity categories, support varieties, and tilting theory, to name a few. These volumes reflect the lively interaction between the subjects witnessed at MSRI. The Introductory Workshops and Connections for Women Workshops for the two programs included lecture series by experts in the field. The volumes include a number of survey articles based on these lectures, along with expository articles and research papers by participants of the programs. Volume 1 contains expository papers ideal for those entering the field.

Commutative Algebra and Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry
  • Volume 2, Research Articles
  • Edited by David Eisenbud, Srikanth B. Iyengar, Anurag K. Singh, J. Toby Stafford, Michel Van den Bergh
  • Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
  • Published online:
    29 May 2025
    Print publication:
    19 November 2015
  • In the 2012–13 academic year, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, hosted programs in Commutative Algebra (Fall 2012 and Spring 2013) and Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry and Representation Theory (Spring 2013). There have been many significant developments in these fields in recent years; what is more, the boundary between them has become increasingly blurred. This was apparent during the MSRI program, where there were a number of joint seminars on subjects of common interest: birational geometry, D-modules, invariant theory, matrix factorizations, noncommutative resolutions, singularity categories, support varieties, and tilting theory, to name a few. These volumes reflect the lively interaction between the subjects witnessed at MSRI. The Introductory Workshops and Connections for Women Workshops for the two programs included lecture series by experts in the field. The volumes include a number of survey articles based on these lectures, along with expository articles and research papers by participants of the programs. Volume 2 focuses on the most recent research.

  • 3 - Pre-Darwinism, Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism

  • from Part II - Evolutionary Biology
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 45-85

  • Summary

    Chapter 3 offers a short history of evolutionary thought before and since Darwin. It is shown that Darwin was both an accomplished theorist and empiricist, a multidisciplinary thinker with an eclectic interest, and a generalist as well as a specialist. Moreover, he developed a range of methods to provide support for evolution. It is argued that one can learn from Darwin about how to go about evolutionary studies in non-biological domains. An extended table summarizes chapter by chapter Darwin’s foundational book On the Origin of Species. The chapter further discusses central concepts of evolution and connects these in a schematic manner. It also pays attention to the rise of genetics and its main achievements. Nine types of evidence allow the reader to appreciate the broad set of data and methods that jointly attest to the veracity of an evolutionary history of organic life. In addition, the chapter devotes attention to the major transitions in natural history. It conceptualizes these in various ways, allowing one to learn about transitions in other, non-biological systems.

  • 11 - Prehistory Until the Rise of Agriculture

  • from Part V - Evolutionary Cultural History
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 321-363

  • Summary

    Chapters 11 and 12 outline a long-term history of human social-economic-technological reality enriched by evolutionary thinking. Chapter 11 starts off with human evolution, including attention for similarities and differences with apes, and brain-mind evolution. It continues with a treatment of pre-agricultural, Pleistocene humans who started making use of stone tools, fire technology and dogs as assistants. The rise of agriculture some 10,000 years ago marked a break in human history, creating new trends, notably of sedentary lifestyles and complex organization due to food surpluses, culminating in early villages and civilizations. This involved written language driven by the need to manage bureaucracy and large populations. Competing explanations for the early transition to agriculture are examined and compared, giving attention to proximate and ultimate factors. This transition is portrayed as a process of coevolution, including genetic change of domesticated animals and crops, agricultural management strategies, and genetic changes in humans. As a bridge to the next chapter, we consider the period in between the Neolithic and Industrial Revolutions from an evolutionary angle.

  • 16 - Evolutionary Futures

  • from Part VI - Evolutionary Environmental and Policy Sciences
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 451-471

  • Summary

    Chapter 16 is an extended epilogue to the book. It sketches a loose, imaginative picture of possible biological, cultural and technological developments in the near and distant future using a combination of genetic and cultural evolutionary arguments. This involves extended attention for science and technology, cultures and religions, and economic and political systems, as well as their interaction. In line with insights from Chapters 14 and 15, it is argued that the relationship of humans and the biosphere will further change and involve evolutionary adaptations on both sides. Using insights from science as well as science fiction, a wealth of ideas is offered on how humans might evolve in the future, both on Earth and beyond, under the influence of combined technological, institutional and global environmental changes. To understand such long-term patterns — and solve various pressing challenges for humanity along the way — the contribution from an evolutionary approach to the social and policy sciences is argued to be indispensable.

  • 8 - Evolutionary Economics

  • from Part IV - Evolutionary Social Sciences
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 239-270

  • Summary

    Chapter 8 introduces its rich set of theories and insights. Foundational work for evolutionary economics was undertaken already in the first half of the 20th century by Joseph Schumpeter, while a classic, axiomatic book on it was written by Nelson and Winter in 1982. Modern evolutionary economics closely connects with an emerging new microeconomics founded in behavioural and experimental economics, which regard economic agents as diverse, boundedly rational and socially interactive. Scaling these ingredients up to a population level inevitably leads to an evolutionary take on economics. The chapter opens with a set of key concepts and building blocks that make up evolutionary economics. This is followed by an examination of the similarities and differences between biological and economic evolution. Next, the main historical contributions to evolutionary economics are reviewed, and the use of two formal approaches in economics, namely evolutionary game theory and multi-agent modelling, is illustrated. Two final sections address the nature of economic growth seen from an evolutionary angle, and the presence of geographical patterns in evolutionary-economic phenomena.

  • 5 - Evolution of Social Behaviour in Animals and Humans

  • from Part III - Bridging Natural and Social Sciences
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 131-154

  • Summary

    Chapter 5 delves deep into the issue of social evolution. This is a multifaceted topic with many distinct perspectives — some complementary others competitive. It is difficult to find a good account of these in a single source, hence the treatment here aims to be synthetic. It entails an account of how social behaviour and interactions have evolved in different species, as well as an explanation of how social behaviour affects, and is affected by, the course of evolution. The fierce debate on sociobiology is recaptured, with special attention given to such different super-social species as insects and primates, while also considering other groups of species. This is followed by an examination of the evolution of empathy, morality and altruism in primates and humans, resulting in human sociobiology and its modern equivalent evolutionary psychology. Both criticism and defence of it will receive attention. The chapter closes with reviewing the many facets of the evolution of human language(s), which has been intricately linked to the evolution of ultra-sociality in humans.

  • 14 - Evolving Solutions for Climate Change

  • from Part VI - Evolutionary Environmental and Policy Sciences
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 411-432

  • Summary

    Chapter 14 addresses evolutionary perspectives on climate policy and a transition to a low-carbon economy. It opens with outlining the urgency of human responses to climate change, and motivates the relevant contribution that evolutionary thinking can provide to the design of adequate climate and population strategies. This includes not only regulatory and innovation policies, but also adaptation strategies. A long section deals with various aspects of low-carbon innovations and a subsequent section with ultimate consequences like energy/carbon rebound, oil market responses and carbon leakage between countries. We study the policy mix needed to combine desirable regulation and innovation effects, and to assure that undesirable systemic effects are controlled. This involves a plea for carbon pricing, with general and evolution-based arguments, as well as an analysis of how to best allocate scarce subsidy money between innovation and diffusion. Finally, the need for policy coordination in the Paris climate treaty is deliberated, bringing many of the earlier themes together in an overall pragmatic advice.

  • 2 - The World According to Evolution

  • from Part I - Prevue
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 19-42

  • Summary

    Chapter 2 explains generalized evolution by developing the V-S-I-R algorithm: variation, innovation, selection and replication. These concepts are explained and it is examined what remains of evolution if some components are not present. Next, a short historical account is offered of interactions between natural and social sciences at the time when evolutionary biology emerged, arguing that economists and the Industrial Revolution contributed in various ways to the development of evolutionary thinking. Next, a longer section addresses the epistemological meaning of evolutionary thinking, considering issues such as evolution as knowledge formation and science as an evolutionary process. It further clarifies the meaning of ‘evidence’ and ‘theories’ in evolutionary thought. The chapter ends with summarizing the old debate on evolution versus design. Particular topics dealt with here are irreducible complexity with an in-depth illustration for the evolution of eyes, the idea of ‘anti-explanation’, stupid versus intelligent design, and the proposal that science and religion are “non-overlapping magisteria”.

  • 9 - Evolution of Organisations and Institutions

  • from Part IV - Evolutionary Social Sciences
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 271-289

  • Summary

    Chapter 9 zooms in on two cornerstones of many social science theories in sociology and economics, namely organizations and institutions. These include firms, NGOs and the public sector. First we look into traditional theories of organizations. Next, attention is devoted to population ecology of organisations, a field of organizational research that uses models from ecology and evolutionary theory to understand the “macrosociology” of organisations. This is followed by a treatment of its empirical counterpart, namely the demography of organisations. The evolution of institutions, including property rights and markets, receives attention subsequently. We proceed by considering the notion of ‘self-organisation’, as it presents another view on organisational theories. It has been interpreted in various ways, due to it having been approached from distinct angles — thermodynamics, cybernetics, information theory, chemistry, biology, informatics and social sciences. This is followed by clarifying differences and relationships between evolution and self-organisation, as well as clarifying two types of complex adaptive systems.

  • 10 - Technological Evolution

  • from Part IV - Evolutionary Social Sciences
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 290-318

  • Summary

    Chapter 10 summarizes the broad literature on the evolution of industry and technology, covering artefacts as well as knowledge. The treatment is organized around three levels of analysis. For technological innovation at the firm level we consider the sources, characteristics, impacts and appropriability of the benefits of technological change. At the level of markets and industries, the interaction between innovation and imitation is addressed. Here detailed attention is given to the nature of diffusion, including at the international level, associated with foreign trade. Finally, at the macro level, long waves or cycles in economic growth are identified, which are linked to major innovations and societal transitions in long-run economic-technological history. Next, path dependence and lock-in of technologies and institutions are addressed. They suggest that a technology may temporally dominate due to historical coincidences combined with increasing returns to adoption. The chapter closes with an examination of management and policy for technological innovation, giving special attention to the idea of optimal technological diversity.

  • 6 - Group Selection in Biology and the Social Sciences

  • from Part III - Bridging Natural and Social Sciences
  • Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Book:
    Human Evolution beyond Biology and Culture
    Published online:
    28 September 2018
    Print publication:
    18 October 2018, pp 155-180

  • Summary

    Chapter 6 discusses a topic within social evolution that has been much debated in biology, namely group or multilevel selection. The idea is that interactions among, and dynamics of, groups contribute to explaining organizational and institutional features of animal and human societies. We address emergence, growth and selection of groups, including their competition, differential growth, conflicts, mergers and takeovers. The chapter examines distinct interpretations of group selection, provides a complete account of group selection mechanisms as identified in the literature, and reviews empirical and experimental evidence. This includes attention for migrant-pool versus propagule types of group formation, non-random assortment, spatial and behavioural population structures, norm-preserving versus norm–diffusing institutions, group splitting and conflict, and non-additive genetic interaction between individuals. In addition, particular features and implications of cultural group selection applying to human groups are considered. Potential applications of group selection thinking aimed at clarifying particular economic, organizational, institutional and policy issues are examined.

Page 1 of 5