K.N. Laland
Conceptual Barriers to Progress Within Evolutionary Biology.
Laland, K.N.; Odling-Smee, J.; Feldman, M.W.; Kendal, J.R.
Abstract
In spite of its success, Neo-Darwinism is faced with major conceptual barriers to further progress, deriving directly from its metaphysical foundations. Most importantly, neo- Darwinism fails to recognize a fundamental cause of evolutionary change, “niche construction”. This failure restricts the generality of evolutionary theory, and introduces inaccuracies. It also hinders the integration of evolutionary biology with neighbouring disciplines, including ecosystem ecology, developmental biology, and the human sciences. Ecology is forced to become a divided discipline, developmental biology is stubbornly difficult to reconcile with evolutionary theory, and the majority of biologists and social scientists are still unhappy with evolutionary accounts of human behaviour. The incorporation of niche construction as both a cause and a product of evolution removes these disciplinary boundaries while greatly generalizing the explanatory power of evolutionary theory.
Citation
Laland, K., Odling-Smee, J., Feldman, M., & Kendal, J. (2009). Conceptual Barriers to Progress Within Evolutionary Biology. Foundations of Science, 14, 195-216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-008-9153-8
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Online Publication Date | Nov 26, 2008 |
Publication Date | Aug 1, 2009 |
Journal | Foundations of Science |
Print ISSN | 1233-1821 |
Electronic ISSN | 1572-8471 |
Publisher | Springer |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 14 |
Pages | 195-216 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-008-9153-8 |
Keywords | niche construction, evolutionary biology, ecological inheritance, ecosystem |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1562138 |
You might also like
Investigating the effects of social information on spite in an online game
(2024)
Journal Article
Cinderella’s Family Tree. A Phylomemetic Case Study of ATU 510/511
(2023)
Journal Article
The role of population size in folk tune complexity
(2022)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search