Peter Andrew Corning (born 1935) is an American

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

, consultant, and complex systems scientist, Director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. He is known especially for his work on the causal role of

synergy Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. The term ''synergy'' comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία ' from ', , meaning "working together". History In Christia ...

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

.Institute for the Study of Complex Systems
. Retrieved 6 June 2008.

Biography

Peter Corning was born in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

in 1935. He received his undergraduate BA from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and completed a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

life science Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy t ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. Later he was awarded a two-year

National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...

Post-doctoral Fellowship for additional study and research at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

. After graduating from Brown University, Corning served as a

naval aviator Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based a ...

and as a science writer at ''Newsweek'' magazine for two years before returning to graduate school. After his post-doctoral studies, he taught in the interdisciplinary Human Biology Program at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

for nine years, along with research appointments in the Behavior Genetics Laboratory of the

Stanford Medical School Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

and in the Department of Engineering Economic Systems. Since 1991, Corning has served as the director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems and as a founding partner of a private consulting firm in Palo Alto, California.Peter A. Corning, Ph.D. Director
, Institute for the Study of Complex Systems 2007. Retrieved 6 June 2008. He was President of the

International Society for the Systems Sciences The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is: :"to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their ...

in 1999, and is Treasurer of the International Society for Bioeconomics and a member of the board of directors of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences. He is also on the board of directors of the Epic of Evolution Society, and has been an actively contributing member of the International Society for Human Ethology, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, the International Society for Endocytobiology, the European Sociobiological Society, and the International Association for Cybernetics. In 1996, he was also the recipient of a research fellowship in evolutionary biology at the Collegium Budapest, an international institute for advanced study, in Hungary.

Work

Peter Corning's research interests are in the fields bioeconomics, and the research "in greater depth on specific sources and economic consequences of functional synergy in nature and its role in biological and socio-cultural evolution. One area of particular interest is molecular level cybernetic processes. Another concerns the progressive evolution of energy-capturing mechanisms".Peter A. Corning
Collegium Budapest, 1998. Retrieved 6 June 2008. Corning is known especially for his work on "the causal role of synergy in evolution. Other work includes a new approach to the relationship between thermodynamics and biology called "

thermoeconomics Thermoeconomics, also referred to as biophysical economics, is a school of heterodox economics that applies the laws of statistical mechanics to economic theory. Thermoeconomics can be thought of as the statistical physics of economic value and ...

", a new, cybernetic approach to information theory called "control information", and research on basic needs under the "Survival Indicators" Program".

Publications

Corning has written seven books and more than 200 research papers and articles over the years. A selection: * 1969. ''The Evolution of Medicare: From Idea to Law''. U.S. Social Security Administration. * 1971. ''The Theory of Evolution as a Paradigm for the Analysis of Social Behavior.'' Ph.D. * 1981. ''The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution.'' McGraw-Hill * 2003. ''Nature's Magic : Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind.'' Cambridge U. Press * 2005. ''Holistic Darwinism : Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution.'' U. Chicago Press * 2011. ''The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and the Pursuit of Social Justice.'' U. Chicago Press * 2018. ''Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind.'' World Scientific Selected Articles: * 1971. "The Biological Bases of Behavior and Some Implications for Political Science." World Politics * 1975. "Toward a Survival Oriented Policy Science." Social Science Information * 1995. "Synergy and Self-Organization in the Evolution of Complex Systems." Systems Research * 1996. "Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Evolution of Politics." International Political Science Review * 1996. "The Co-operative Gene: On the Role of Synergy in Evolution." Evolutionary Theory * 1996. ''To be or Entropy: Or Thermodynamics, Information and Life Revisited, A Comic Opera in Two Acts''. With

Stephen Jay Kline Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

. Prepared for the International Society for the Systems Sciences Annual Meeting, Budapest, Hungary, September 1996. * 1997. "Holistic Darwinism: 'Synergistic Selection' and the Evolutionary Process." Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems * 1998. "The Synergism Hypothesis: On the Concept of Synergy and Its Role in the Evolution of Complex Systems." Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems * 2000. "Biological Adaptation in Human Societies: A 'Basic Needs' Approach." Journal of Bioeconomics * 2001. "'Control Information': The Missing Element in Norbert Wiener's Cybernetic Paradigm." Kybernetes * 2002. "The Re-emergence of Emergence: A Venerable Concept in Search of a Theory." Complexity * 2002. "Thermoeconomics: Beyond the Second Law." Journal of Bioeconomics. * 2007. "Synergy Goes to War: A Bioeconomic Theory of Collective Violence." Journal of Bioeconomics. * 2007. "Control Information Theory: The 'Missing Link' in the Science of Cybernetics." Systems Research and Behavioral Science * 2008. "What is Life? Among Other Things, It's a Synergistic Effect." Cosmos and History * 2010. "The Re-emergence of Emergence, and the Causal Role of Synergy in Emergent Evolution." Synthese * 2013. "Evolution 'On Purpose': How Behaviour Has Shaped the Evolutionary Process." Biological Journal of the Linnean Society * 2013. "Rotating the Necker Cube: A Bioeconomic Approach to Cooperation and the Causal Role of Synergy in Evolution." Journal of Bioeconomics * 2016. "The Science of Human Nature and the Social Contract." Cosmos and History * 2019. "Teleonomy and the Proximate-Ultimate Distinction Revisited." Biological Journal of the Linnean Society * 2020. "Beyond the Modern Synthesis: A Framework for a More Inclusive Biological Synthesis." Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology * 2021. "'How' vs. 'Why' Questions in Symbiogenesis, and the Causal Role of Synergy." Bio-Systems

References

External links

Peter A. Corning
Director, Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, ISCS 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Corning, Peter 1935 births American architects Living people American systems scientists People from San Juan County, Washington 21st-century American biologists Symbiogenesis researchers Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences

Biography

Work

Publications

See also

References

External links