Peter Turchin's Web Page. Professor (Ph.D., Duke University) Curriculum Vita Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Connecticut 75 N. Eagleville Road, U-43, Storrs, CT 06269-3043, USA Tel: (860) 486-3603; Fax: (860) 486-6364 E-Mail: Peter.Turchin@UConn.edu I am professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and adjunct in the departments of Anthropology and Mathematics at the University of Connecticut. Editor-in-Chief of Cliodynamics: The Journal of Theoretical and Mathematical History Editor, the Social Evolution Forum Current Areas of Research I was trained as a theoretical biologist, but my current research interests lie within the fields of Cultural Evolution and Historical Social Dynamics (Cliodynamics).
Although we have recently made great strides in understanding how human sociality evolved in the context of small groups integrated by face-to-face interactions, we still lack understanding of how humans became an ultrasocial species. Books: Turchin P, Nefedov SA. 2009. The Archaeology Channel - Welcome. State of nature.
The state of nature is a concept in moral and political philosophy used in religion, social contract theories and international law[1] to denote the hypothetical conditions of what the lives of people might have been like before societies came into existence. There must have been a time before organized societies existed, and this presumption raises questions such as: "What was life like before civil society? "; "How did government first emerge from such a starting position? ," and; "What are the hypothetical reasons for entering a state of society by establishing a Nation-state?
". In some versions of social contract theory, there are no rights in the state of nature, only freedoms, and it is the contract that creates rights and obligations. Noted philosophers[edit] Thomas Aquinas[edit] The term "state of nature" appears in the writings of Thomas Aquinas (born c. 1225) (see De Veritate, Question 19, Article 1, Answer 13). Thomas Hobbes[edit] John Locke[edit] Montesquieu[edit] David Hume[edit] Cliodynamics. Historical Atlas of the 20th Century. British Battles - analysing and documenting British Battles from the previous centuries.