Re: Addressing Scientific Reductionism

Robert J. Kolker wrote:

dkomo wrote:



Moreover, in a book I've just recently slogged through, _The
Plausibility of Life_, such modular organization has been strongly
selected by evolution because it greatly facilitates the process of
viable phenotypic variation. Organisms are modular because they can
evolve more easily if they are. A small amount of genetic change can
result in big changes in organism characteristics. No need for
Darwinian gradualism.


Now that is quite fascinating. That could very well account for
punctuated equilbrium. It is interesting to note there is much more to
(possible) evolutionary mechanisms than the sculptoring and culling done
by natural selection.

I am beginning to understand why thinkers like Dennett consider the
theory of evolution the greatest thing since sliced whitebread.


Yes, the book contains many interesting and, I think, important ideas.
Its emphasis is on how variation in organisms is generated, amplified
and channeled, rather than how natural selection works. The reason I
used the word "slogged" is that it is a tough read for the biological
non-specialist because it uses a stiff jargon laden prose style. The
intended audience seems to be fellow professionals in evolutionary
biology, the two authors apparently trying to get their new theories
accepted, rather than trying to make themselves understood by an
audience of the hoi polloi. [I notice my own prose style gets a bit
stiffer after I read a book like that. But then I read some of the
posts in this newsgroup, and I feel relieved.]

Here are some of the key ideas discussed: facilitated variation,
exploratory behaviors, conserved core processes, compartmentation,
deconstraint, weak regulatory linkages, evolvability, somatic
adaptability, phenotypic plasticity, robustness, the Baldwin effect, etc.

Summary of the key theme of the book:

"In the final phase, observable today, facilitated variation plays out.
The internally constrained processes, with their adaptive capacities
for weak linkage, exploratory behavior, compartmentation, robustness,
and flexibility, by various regulatory means are used in manifold
combinations with other processes, and in different parts of their
adaptive ranges. Evolvability increases, and phenotypic radiations
occur. Conservation of core processes is strengthened as the processes
and components are repeatedly reslected with each selected trait they
participate in generating, each trait being a new combination."


--Kirschner and Gerhart, _The Plausibility of Life_, p. 259


--dkomo@xxxxxxxx




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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Digital Genetics and Evolution Theory
    ... variation of characteristics between different individuals. ... creates differences for selection to select. ... It seems to be a somewhat circular situation: organisms are ... incompatible with Darwinian evolution as generally understood. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Bipedalism in different substrates
    ... evolution occurs when a species ... It does this by reducing variation. ... > Selection is a brake, a mechanism to reduce variation, to weed out ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Insights Ive gained from my Bio class so far
    ... about problems with evolution, the examples they give of problem organisms ... percentage of the life on earth. ... the selection processes that caused their evolution in the first place. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Insights Ive gained from my Bio class so far
    ... about problems with evolution, the examples they give of problem organisms ... percentage of the life on earth. ... the selection processes that caused their evolution in the first place. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Bipedalism in different substrates
    ... It does this by reducing variation. ... >> from mutation and recombination without which evolution would soon cease. ... >> evolution without selection moves about equally random. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)