Big Ideas

Acknowledgments
Preface
About the Authors

Chapter 1. Introduction
Overview
A Brief History of Histories of Everything
Information and Interpretation
Themes
Organization and Layout
Points and Purposes
Creation
A Quick Tour of Ideas About Creation
Creation Myths and Universal Histories
Discipline
The Challenges of Integrating Different Disciplines
Example: What Counts as an Explanation? Simplicity vs. Complexity
Integrating the Humanities and Sciences: The Interpretive Level
Scale
Side note: Powers of Ten
Space and Time Tell a Story
Side note: We Are Intermediate-Scaled
Value, Significance, and Scale: Small Matters Too

Chapter 2. Universe
Universe
The Size of the Universe
The Centrality of the Earth
The Moral Meaning of the Universe
Defining the Universe
Big Bang
The Story
The Evidence
Side note: The Lithium Problem
Levels of Confidence
Gravity
Gravity in the History of the Universe: Galaxies, Stars, Elements, Planets
Ideas About Gravity
Observational Challenges: Dark Matter and Dark Energy
Side note: Unseen Matter and Gravity
Gravity as a Metaphor
Entropy
What Is Entropy?
Entropy, Order, and Complexity
Entropy in an Expanding Universe, Past and Future
Mathematics
Laws of Physics
Limitations of Laws
Laws and Discipline
Why the Unreasonable Effectiveness?
Physical Laws and the Nature of Explanations in Physics
Fine-Tuning

Chapter 3. Earth
Earth
Forming the Earth
Earth as a Planet
Earth as a Set of Systems
Earth as Alive
Plate Tectonics
The Idea and the Evidence
Plate Tectonics and the Earth's Interior
Side note: Does Plate Tectonics Itself Have a History?
Shifting the Conceptual Ground
To Ponder: Plate Tectonics as a Metaphor
Deep Time
A Brief History of Earth
How Do We Know?
Side note: How Did the Moon Form?
Telling the Story of Deep Time
To Ponder: The Anthropocene
Ordering by Separating
Accretion and Differentiation
Sedimentation and Isotope Fractionation
Ordering by Separating, Past and Present
Reductionism
What Is Reductionism?
Scale and (Anti-)Reductionism in Universal Histories
Contextual Emergence
To Ponder: Wholes and Parts
Discipline, Reductionism, and the Overall Shape of Knowledge

Chapter 4. Life
Life
Life and Levels of Biological Organization
Life: Discipline and Reductionism
Side note: Scales of Life
Side note: The Same Entity Can Be Treated at Multiple Levels
Evolution
The History of Evolution: Darwin's Time and Before
Natural Selection
Modern Evolutionary Synthesis
Extended side note: Evidence for Evolution
Evolution as Information, Evolution as Interpretation
Evolution, Progress, and the Value of Animals
Evolution, Progress, and the Value of Human Beings
Survival, Struggle, and the Nature of Nature
Evolution: Interpret With Care
Biosphere
The Beginnings of the Biosphere: 3+ Billion Years Ago
A World of Microbes: 3 to 1.5 Billion Years Ago
A World of Microbes . . . Plus Other Stuff: 1.5 Billion Years Ago to the Present
How Historians Can Help Scientists
Side note: Stromatolites and Hunter-Gatherers
The Place of Humans in Life's History
Biochemistry
The Beginnings of Life: How, Where, Why?
Life's History--A Biochemical Story?
What Is Life?
Science
Science Is Philosophical
Side note: How the Philosophy of Statistics Influences Cosmology
Science Is Social
To Ponder: Crackpots
Science Has Limits

Chapter 5. Humanity
Humanity
Human Ancestry
The Search for Human Origins and the Anthropologist's Proxies for Humanity
To Ponder: What Does It Mean to Be Human?
Culture
Biology and Culture
Side note: Cultural Evolution
Biology and Culture as Interpretive Framing
Technology
Stone Tools
Hunting and Extinction of the Megafauna
Agriculture
Progress Narratives and the Interpretation of Prehistoric Technologies
Language
Some Basic Properties of Language
Origins of Language: When, How, Why?
Side note: Language and Thinking
Mind
Mind, Consciousness, Physicalism
Extended sidebar: Other Minds
Side note: Other Minds
Integrating the Human Sciences: Human Beings and Being Human

Chapter 6. History
History
Universal Histories in the Context of History-Writing
To Ponder: A History of You
Evidence, Deep Time, and World History
To Ponder: Southeast Asian Inscriptions
Information and Interpretation in World History
Side note: Following Up on "A History of You"
Large Scales and the Individual
Contingency
Contingency in History
Contingency in the History of Life
Chance, Laws, and Contingency in Historical Explanation
Side note: Counterfactuals
Context
A Brief History of the World in Three Parts
Side note: Evolutionary Psychology
Side note: Social Constructs
The Multiple Contexts of Universal Histories
Population
Population Dynamics in the Era of Foragers, the Agrarian Era, and the Modern Era
Malthusian Thinking About Population Dynamics
Side note: State Formation in Sumer
Extended side note: Easter Island
Biological Reductionism in Universal Histories
To Ponder: Population and Culture in Other Animals
Causation
Multicausal History
Determinisms, Free Will, and the Writing of History
Relationships Between Causation, Context, and Contingency

Chapter 7. Modernity
Modernity
Modern Changes: As Seen From the Informational Level
Side note: Sociology
Modernity as Interpretation and Storytelling
Connection
Connection Goes Far Back
Global Connections
The Limitations of Connection
Systems
The Idea of a System, and How It Structures Universal Histories
Advantages and Limitations of "Systems Thinking"
Statistics
Statistics, the Social Sciences, and Modern Concepts
Side note: Eugenics and Theoretical Statistics
Projecting Numerical Information Wherever We Look
Purpose
Side note: Philosophy in Modernity
A Brief History of Purpose in (Western) Philosophy
Purpose in Biology
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Including Purpose
Purpose, the Universe, and Emergence

Chapter 8. Future
Future
What Makes Something Predictable?
Side note: Futurologists
Causality and Scale
An Example of Short-Term Prediction: Climate Change
Medium-Term Futures
Long-Term Futures
Wildcards and Interactions Between Trends
Interpreting the Future
Progress
Problems With Progress
The Future as a Site for Discussing Present Moral Standards
Sustainability
Universal History as Context for the Anthropocene
Sustainability in the Anthropocene
Environmental Sustainability as a Matter of Social Organization and Infrastructure
Side note: The Aral Sea
Environmental Tradeoffs and the Future
Transhumanism
Technology and the Future of Human Evolution
Technologies and Technical Limits of Human Modification
Universal Histories and Transhumanism
Criticisms of Transhumanism
Time
To Ponder: To Experience a Radically Extended Life Span
Philosophy, Physics, and Time
Time in Other Disciplines

Chapter 9. Interpretation
Interpretation
What Is Interpretation?
Interpretation and the Integration of Disciplines, Worldviews, and People
Interpretation and Universal Histories
Complexity
Measuring Complexity
Complexity in the Physical, Biological, and Social Worlds
Evaluating Complexity
Religion
Naturalism as One Worldview Among Several
Religious Worldviews and the Foundations of Universal History
The Reasonability of Religious Worldviews
Incorporating Religion in Universal History
Narrative
The Atheist and the Orthodox Jew: Visions of Reality
Metanarrative
A Many-Branched Stream

Appendix
Index

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