| Biopsychology.org | Links |
In this section we tried to select the Internet resources that constitute, according to our opinion, the base for a scientific formation in Biopsychology and in general Human Sciences.
Mathematics |
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Mathematics is the language of Science. It is indispensable for any training in Natural Sciences |
Algebra and Calculus |
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Probability Theory |
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Information Theory |
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Information Theory is a fundamental tool to be able to apply Thermodynamics and Biophysics to all phenomena of the human behavior and, especially, to those related to the subjective experience (perception, emotion, knowledge, communication, etc). The Information Theory was conceived by Claude Shannon in 1948. |
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Other interesting links |
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Physics |
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The understanding of the processes of life comes from the knowledge of the fundamental laws of matter, and of how life is determined by these laws. Laws of Physics, and especially Thermodynamics laws, are essential to understand the nature of life and, consequently, the behavior of human beings. |
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Astronomy |
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Mechanics |
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Classic Mechanics provides us the basic concepts to understand Thermodynamics. The most important concepts are those about energy and work. |
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Thermodynamics |
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Thermodynamics is the general theory of the macroscopic processes and it is the base in which our current understanding of life phenomena is sustained. Especially, it is indispensable to understand the concept of entropy and the second law, in its diverse manifestations. It is also fundamental to understand the relationship between energy, work and entropy. Modern Thermodynamics is based on Boltzmann's works. |
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Ludwic Boltzmann |
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He discovered the physical nature of the entropy and allowed a real beginning to the understanding of the nature of life. |
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Biophysics |
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Biophysics provides us the general understanding of the life phenomena starting from the Thermodynamics of the processes very far from equilibrium, developed by I. Prigogine. In short, life consists of staying very far from the thermodynamic equilibrium (maximum disorder). To achieve that unique goal, a living system should be able to interact with its environment in order to dissipate the entropy produced inside the living system (dissipation system). Life evolves developing infinite kinds of entropy dissipation. As dissipation of entropy means to produce disorder in the environment, the principle of the struggle for life, discovered by Darwin and which is the base of modern Biology, turns out to be a particularly right and relevant expression of the more general principle of entropy dissipation (I. Prigogine). Physics and Biology unite intimately and irreversibly. |
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Ilya Prigogine |
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Following the path begun by De Donder, Prigogine established the bases to understand the behavior of the living beings starting from the laws of nature. |
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Biochemistry |
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Biology |
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Biology is the science of life and, therefore, it is the place from which the human phenomena are understood in all their manifestations. Biology constitutes the base-line field for all Human Sciences, Psychology among them. Once the basic foundation of life in terms of the laws of Physics is understood, Biology provides us the theoretical and methodological tools to face up the infinite biodiversity of life and human phenomena. |
General Biology |
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Charles Darwin |
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"Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult at least I have found it so than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind. Yet unless it be thoroughly engrained in the mind, I am convinced that the whole economy of nature, with every fact on distribution, rarity, abundance, extinction, and variation, will be dimly seen or quite misunderstood." (Darwin, 1859) |
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Modern biological theory is based on the Darwinian principle of the struggle for life. This constitutes the base to understand the dynamics of behavior and the evolution of life. Thanks to Prigogine, we know today that this principle is totally compatible with the fundamental laws of nature. Unfortunately, the mistake of believing that human beings are free from the application of this law it is very extended and commonly shared. Even more, the mistake of willing to justify by means of this principle any kind of human decision (political, social, economical, medical, etc.) prevents us from the scientific understanding of the human being from the biological perspective. The aim of Science is to help us to understand our decisions but not to justify them. Biology teaches us to be modest, to understand that our existence goes parallel to the life of the other living beings, and that anything we may do, think or believe will not change the course of nature. The laws of nature determine us although we are obstinate denying, ignoring and impeding it. |
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Richard Dawkins |
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Dawkins exposed in 1976 for the first time the way of extending the Darwinian theory to cultural phenomena. It is the most important theoretical advance in Biology in the 20th century and it is one of the fundamental elements for the application of Biology to the study of human phenomena. In short, every culture is formed by information units (ideas, values, knowledge, stereotypes, etc.) stored in the neural connections of the brains. These units (memes) are able to reproduce themselves with variation into other brains (through oral communication, books, television, internet, etc.). And memes must struggle against each other to be able to reproduce successfully and, consequently, to evolve and to endure. Cultural evolution is the result of meme reproduction and its struggle for life. |
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Genetics |
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Evolution |
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It is not possible to understand the human nature without knowing its origin and evolution. Knowing the facts of the evolution of life helps us to understand the place of human beings in nature. |
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Ecology |
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Modern Ecology approaches the study of the interactions between the individuals and populations that share the same ecosystem and it constitutes, therefore, the theoretical base for the study of the human social relationships. All the human relationships and, in particular, loving relationships, can be described by concepts such as mutualism, competition, parasitism, depredation, etc. Social relationships are the main battlefield where human beings struggle for their life. Success or failure, health or illness, wealth or poverty, wisdom or ignorance, etc. is the extreme result of the daily social struggle that the human beings are forced to engage to survive. Ecology provides us with the basic concepts to understand our social and loving relationships. |
Quantitative Population Ecology by Alexei Sharov |
Neurology (Neurobiology) |
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Neurology, together with the evolution facts, provides us with the basic knowledge to understand the biological nature of the human phenomena, mainly those related to the subjective experience: emotions, loving, thought, language, beliefs, art, science, etc. Today, thanks to the research findings about the nervous system and the evolution of life, it doesn't exist any doubt among scientists about the biological nature of all human phenomena and, in particular, cultural facts. Given that accepting that the information stored in the molecular structure of DNA is biological is not a problem any more, so it shouldn't exist any obstacle to accept that the information stored in the neuronal structure of the Central Nervous System (CNS) is equally biological. |
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Kenneth H. Norwich |
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He has discovered that the neuronal sensitive response is proportional to the uncertainty (or entropy) of the stimulus instead of its intensity. This result opens up, in our opinion, the way to the understanding of the brain operation as a dissipative system and it constitutes a fundamental support for the identity between thermodynamic entropy and information uncertainty. |
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Ethology |
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Ethology studies the behavior patterns genetically and/or culturally determined. |
Other interesting links |
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Human Sciences |
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Scientifically, Human Sciences as a whole, can be located completely inside the wide field of Biology and they fully assume the theoretical foundations of the biological thought. Nowadays, any human phenomenon (culture, thought, emotion, literature, science, economy, art, religion, etc.) can be understood from a biological point of view. Unfortunately, there is still a high degree of ignorance and rejection of natural science among human scientists. This prevents them from understanding the arbitrariness of their speculative positions. On the other hand, it also exists a certain fear among natural scientists to approach human phenomena from a natural science perspective. Both circumstances make that what is scientifically possible, is still an incipient project. |
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Medicine |
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Biopsychology is intimately attached to Medicine in its common desire of contributing to human health. Medicine has been the first human science that has been integrated inside Biology. Medicine also teaches us that it doesn't exist any fundamental difference between human beings and the rest of the living species. |
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Louis Pasteur |
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Pasteur carried out the fundamental discovery of the modern Medicine: the illnesses don't originate for spontaneous generation but for the attack of microscopic organisms (bacterias and virus). |
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Biopsychosocial Approach |
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The biopsychosocial approach has been developed during the last decades as a result of the growing conscience between the professionals of health, that there are psychological and social factors that intervene whether at the origin or during the development of an illness. |
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Anthropology |
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Anthropology has experienced a clear evolution toward Biology during the last decades. Modern Anthropology finds in Biology the theoretical foundations needed to explain and to understand the cultural biodiversity of the human species, rejecting the speculations, far from real, of the old Anthropology. |
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Human evolution |
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The study of paleontological facts and theories of human evolution is a must for all human scientists. |
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History |
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The Agricultural Revolution |
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There are two fundamental landmarks within the human cultural evolution that constitute the final reference for all the other cultural phenomena. The oldest, and therefore the most important for the present time is the Agricultural Revolution. Most of our current culture is the result of 10.000 years of agricultural civilization. |
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The Industrial Revolution (1750-?) |
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Today, we are living a biological revolution of an incalculable magnitude whose outcome nobody can reach nor foresee. In the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution began a process of accelerated change in the technological culture of the human species that it hasn't yet arrived to an end. This means that the economic and technological reality to which the culture of human beings must be adapted to survive changes rapidly from one generation to the next. Meanwhile, most of our social and family culture is still agricultural. This disruption has produced what has been called 'the values crisis' of the modern society. Especially, the family structure seems to be condemned to the extinction while it still doesn't exist an alternative social structure. |
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Bionomics (Bioeconomics) |
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Bionomics, or Bioeconomics, considers that the economic processes and behaviors are exclusively biological facts and, therefore, that they can be understood and explained, using Biology. Rothschild has been the first one to explain economic behavior from an exclusively biological point of view. That approach appears in his book "Bionomics. Economy as Ecosystem", 1990. |
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Linguistics |
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Biopsychology |
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We use the term 'biopsychology' to express the certainty that Psychology is a biological science. We consider Biopsychology (or Psychology) as the study of the human emotional, affective and cognitive processes from a biological perspective. |
Human Ethology |
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Evolutionary Psychology |
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Evolutionary Psychology tries to investigate the evolution and the selection of cognitive patterns along the human evolution. |
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Neuropsychology |
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The development of Neurology allows us to begin to understand some general aspects of our subjective experience and our behavior starting from what we already know about the operation of the brain. See Neurology |
