Sunday 2 August 2009

Background to the Dover Psychology Blog

It is now quite evident that there will never be an opportunity to present a comphrehensive description of the archaeotrauma, or of the important derivative proposal: the possibility of a testable and non-Lamarckian [1], "Internal Evolutionary Mechanism".

This reality, coupled with the loss of my original website [2] when AOL stopped providing this service for all of its members in late 2008, has led to an evaluation of what can realistically be achieved under circumstances which are always quite difficult, and quite frankly, sometimes impossible.

The result of the appraisal is, of course, "Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town"; a CNAME sub-domain of evospychology.com, once intended to hold the "comprehensive description".

As far as the Evolution and Psychology categories are concerned, a blog solution enables the research results to be presented as a "work in progress", with the initial posts mostly consisting of material previously published elsewhere on the internet.

The first posts in the Abuse, Abuse in Dover and Social Psychology categories, on the other hand, are likely to be more evenly balanced between the "old" and the "new".

The Dover Blog will also include categories reflecting other aspects of my life here. "Dover History", for example, will feature videos and photos - along with background information - of locations in and around the town (many of these entries will subsequently be used to illustrate more general psychological principles in Social Psychology, etc.)

Owing to the relative ease with which existing material can be 'translated' into a blog format, I expect "Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town" will appear to be a history website (rather than a psychology one) for the first month or two!

John Latter / Jorolat

[1] Also see Jean-Baptiste Lamarck:

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la Marck, usually known as Lamarck, (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829) was a French soldier, naturalist, academic and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws...

...In the modern era, Lamarck is remembered mainly for a theory of inheritance of acquired characters, called soft inheritance or Lamarckism. However, his idea of soft inheritance was, perhaps, a reflection of the folk wisdom of the time, accepted by many natural historians. Lamarck's contribution to evolutionary theory consisted of the first truly cohesive theory of evolution, in which an alchemical complexifying force drove organisms up a ladder of complexity, and a second environmental force adapted them to local environments through use and disuse of characteristics, differentiating them from other organisms.

[2] Most of the original AOL website has been permanently stored by the Internet Archive at Evolution, The Evolutionary Mechanism, Psychology (AOL).

[1st Revision: 2nd August, 2009]

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