Peter A. Corning

Peter A. Corning is currently Director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems. His academic background includes a B.A. from Brown University and a social science Ph.D., from New York University, as well as post-doctoral training in the biological sciences under an NIMH fellowship at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado and nine years of teaching in Stanford University=s interdisciplinary Human Biology Program, with research appointments in Stanford’s Behavior Genetics Laboratory and Engineering Economic Systems Department. Dr. Corning was also a recent senior fellow at the Collegium Budapest (Institute for Advanced Study) in Hungary. His other professional affiliations include the International Society for the Systems Sciences, where he is a past-president and the International Society for Bioeconomics, where he has served as treasurer. He has also been a member of the Council of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, as well as an actively participating member of the American Society for Cybernetics, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, the International Society for Endocytobiology, and the International Society for Human Ethology. In addition, he has served on the editorial boards of four scientific journals and is the author of six books and more than 200 scientific papers and book chapters. His academic books include The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution, (New York: McGraw-Hill 1983); Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind, (New York: Cambridge University Press 2003); Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2005); and most recently: The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and the Pursuit of Social Justice, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2011). Two of his theoretical contributions include a causal theory of complexity in evolution known as the Synergism Hypothesis and Control Information Theory, a theory of communications and control in “purposeful” (cybernetic) processes.

Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind

How and why has life on Earth become ever more complex over time? Darwin’s theory has provided us with a general framework for understanding biological evolution, but it does not explain the long-term trend toward increased complexity. Peter Corning’s new book represents a major theoretical contribution. It highlights the creative role of synergy – the unique combined effects produced by two or more genes, parts, or organisms – throughout the natural world. As Corning puts it: “Nothing about the evolution of biological complexity makes sense except in the light of synergy… Life on Earth has been a synergistic phenomenon from the get go.” He also shows how synergy has been a key to human evolution, including the rise of complex modern societies. He describes the evolution of our species as a cooperative, entrepreneurial process, which he refers to as the “Self-Made Man” scenario.

“This is an important book,” writes Daniel W. McShea, Professor of Biology at Duke University. “It offers a solution to a problem that has been central to evolutionary biology for half a century, with implications that reach down to the foundations of evolutionary theory.”

Dr. Corning also addresses the future of our species, and of the planet, in the context of the negative synergies that are now threatening to overwhelm us. As he shows, we are at a tipping point in our history. He argues that our ultimate fate as a species will depend on being able to make major social, economic and political changes on a global scale, and he offers us a synergy-based road-map to the future. According to Anthony Trewavas, FRS, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Molecular Plant Science, University of Edinburgh, “This magnificent book reveals the critical role of synergy in evolution and in all of biology, including especially in humankind.” He concludes: “Peter Corning offers us a unique and hopeful new vision.”

Written in an engaging, conversational style, Corning’s book will appeal to academics, students and general readers who are interested in evolution, and in the future of humankind. The late Sir Patrick Bateson, FRS, Emeritus Professor of Biology at Cambridge University and president of the Zoological Society of London, offered this strong endorsement: “Peter Corning’s approach is wise and he is astonishingly well read… He writes extremely well and I read every word with great pleasure and interest. I am full of admiration and strongly recommend it.”
Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind (2003)

The thesis of this book, in brief, is that synergy—a vaguely familiar term to many of us—is actually one of the major organizing principles of the natural world. It has been a wellspring of creativity in evolution and has played central role in the evolution of complexity, from the subject-matter of physics and chemistry to human societies. The “Synergism Hypothesis” asserts that synergy is not simply a class of interesting and ubiquitous effects; it has also been a major causal agency in evolution. Synergistic functional effects of various kinds have been a necessary, if not sufficient, requisite for the evolution of cooperation and complexity at all levels of biological organization. It is a unifying theory of complexity.

This theory is not as radical or revolutionary as it sounds. It is fully consistent with Darwin’s theory, and with the canons ofphysics, chemistry, the biological sciences and the social sciences. It is also compatible with “symbiogenesis,” “multilevel selection theory” and other recent formulations that are concerned with cooperative relationships in nature. In effect, the Synergism Hypothesis involves a different perspective, a different way of viewing the same phenomena. It is quintessentially an economic (or “bioeconomic”) theory of complexity—a functional theory, as distinct from gene-centered theories, or postulates of self-organization and emergent “laws” of complexity, or even theories of historical contingencies (a “drunkard’s walk”). Moreover, this theory is testable and lends itself to falsifiable predictions.

Nature’s Magic provides a brief survey of the many different kinds of synergy in nature and develops the case for the Synergism Hypothesis in some detail. The theory is then applied specifically to the evolution of humankind and complex human societies.
Holistic Darwinism Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution (2005)

In recent years, evolutionary theorists have come to recognize that the reductionists, individualists, gene-centered approach to evolution cannot sufficiently account for the emergence of complex biological systems over time. Peter A. Corning has been at the forefront of a new generation of complexity theorists who have been working to reshape the foundations of evolutionary theory. Well known for his Synergism Hypothesis- a theory of complexity in evolution that assigns a key casual role to various forms of functional synergy - Corning puts this theory into a much broader framework in Holistic Darwinism, addressing many of the issues and concepts associated with the evolution of complex systems. Corning’s paradigm embraces and integrates many related theoretical developments of recent years, from multilevel selection theory to niche construction theory, gene-culture coevolution theory, and theories of self-organization. Offering new approaches to thermodynamics, information theory, and economic analysis, Corning suggests how all of these domains can be brought firmly with in what he characterizes as a post-neo-Darwinism evolutionary synthesis.
More books

The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution, (New York: McGraw-Hill 1983)

The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and the Pursuit of Social Justice, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2011)

List of publications

The Fair Society: It’s Time to Re-Write the Social Contract (2012)

Rotating the Necker Cube: A Bioeconomic Approach to Cooperation and the Causal Role of Synergy in Evolution (2013)

Systems Theory and the Role of Synergy in the Evolution of Living Systems (2013)

Evolution ‘On Purpose’: How Behaviour Has Shaped the Evolutionary Process (2014)

Synergy and Self-organization in the Evolution of Complex Systems (1995)

The Co-operative Gene: On the Role of Synergy in Evolution (1996)

Bioeconomics as a Subversive Science: From ‘Tastes’ and ‘Preferences’ to ‘Adaptation’ and ‘Basic Needs’ (1996)

Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Evolution of Politics (1996)

Bio-Political Economy: A Trail-guide for an Inevitable Discipline (1997)

Holistic Darwinism: Synergistic Selection and the Evolutionary Process (1998)

Thermodynamics, Information, and Life Revisited: Part 1—‘To Be or Entropy’ (1998)

Thermodynamics, Information, and Life Revisited: Part 2—‘Thermoeconomics’ and ‘Control Information’ (1998)

‘The Synergism Hypothesis’: On The Concept of Synergy (1998)

Biological Adaptation in Human Societies: A ‘Basic Needs’ Approach (2000)

Thermoeconomics: Beyond the Second Law (2000)

‘Devolution’ as an Opportunity to Test the Synergism Hypothesis and a Cybernetic Theory of Political Systems (2001)

The Re-emergence of Emergence: A Venerable Concept in Search of a Theory (2001)

Fulfilling von Bertalanffy’s Vision: The Synergism Hypothesis as a General Theory of Biological and Social Systems (2001)

Synergy and the Evolution of ‘Superorganisms’: Past, Present, and Future (2002)

The Basic Problem is Still Survival, and an Evolutionary Ethics is Indispensable (2003)

“Fair Shares”: A Biological Approach to Social Justice (2004)

The Evolution of Politics (2004)

Control Information (2007)

Synergy Goes to War (2007)
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Institute for the Study of Complex Systems;

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Books

Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind

Nature's Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind (2003)

Holistic Darwinism Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution (2005)

More books

Publications

List of publications

Publications with download links

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