
Challenging the Modern Synthesis
Adaptation, Development, and Inheritance
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 12. October 2017
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-0-19-937717-6 (ISBN)
Description
Since its origin in the early 20th century, the Modern Synthesis theory of evolution has grown to become the orthodox view on the process of organic evolution. Its central defining feature is the prominence it accords to genes in the explanation of evolutionary dynamics. Since the advent of the 21st century, however, the Modern Synthesis has been subject to repeated and sustained challenges. These are largely empirically driven. In the last two decades, evolutionary biology has witnessed unprecedented growth in the understanding of those processes that underwrite the development of organisms and the inheritance of characters. The empirical advances usher in challenges to the conceptual foundations of evolutionary theory. The extent to which the new biology challenges the Modern Synthesis has been the subject of lively debate. Many current commentators charge that the new biology of the 21st century calls for a revision, extension, or wholesale rejection of the Modern Synthesis Theory of evolution. Defenders of the Modern Synthesis maintain that the theory can accommodate the exciting new advances in biology. The original essays collected in this volume survey the various challenges to the Modern Synthesis arising from the new biology of the 21st century. The authors are evolutionary biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of biology from Europe and North America. Each of the essays discusses a particular challenge to the Modern Synthesis treatment of inheritance, development, or adaptation. Taken together, the essays cover a spectrum of views, from those that contend that the Modern Synthesis can rise to the challenges of the new biology, with little or no revision required, to those that call for the abandonment of the Modern Synthesis. The collection will be of interest to researchers and students in evolutionary biology, and the philosophy and history of the biological sciences.
Reviews / Votes
represents the latest in a growing body of literature ... The contributors to these sections develop a wide range of ideas about the past, present, and future of evolutionary theory. * Karen Kovaka, Metascience *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
710 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-937717-6 (9780199377176)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Philippe Huneman | Denis M. Walsh
Challenging the Modern Synthesis
Adaptation, Development, and Inheritance
E-Book
08/2017
OUP eBook
€56.99
Available for download

Philippe Huneman | Denis M. Walsh
Challenging the Modern Synthesis
Adaptation, Development, and Inheritance
E-Book
08/2017
OUP eBook
€44.99
Available for download
Persons
Philippe Huneman is CNRS Research Professor and Professor of Philosophy at LInstitut dHistoire et de Philosophie des Science et des Technique, Universite Paris I SorbonneWalsh: Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Biology in the Department of Philosophy, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and the Department of Ecology and evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
Denis M. Walsh received a PhD in Biology at McGill University and a PhD in Philosophy at King's College London. He held the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Biology at the University of Toronto until 2015.
Denis M. Walsh received a PhD in Biology at McGill University and a PhD in Philosophy at King's College London. He held the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Biology at the University of Toronto until 2015.
Editor
CNRS Research Professor and Professor of PhilosophyCNRS Research Professor and Professor of Philosophy, LInstitut dHistoire et de Philosophie des Science et des Technique
Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Biology in the Department of Philosophy, the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCanada Research Chair in Philosophy of Biology in the Department of Philosophy, the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
Content
Contributors iv
Introduction
Challenging the Modern Synthesis 1
Denis M. Walsh and Philippe Huneman
Part 1: Adaptation and Selection
Chapter 1: Natural Selection, Adaptation, and the Recovery of Development David Depew
Chapter 2: Why would we call for a new evolutionary synthesis? The variation issue and the explanatory alternatives Philippe Huneman
Chapter 3: Genetic Assimilation and the Paradox of Blind Variation Arnaud Pocheville and Etienne Danchin
Chapter 4: Evolutionary Theory Evolving Patrick Bateson
Part 2: Development
Chapter 5: Evo-devo and the Structure(s) of Evolutionary Theory: A Different Kind of Challenge Alan C. Love
Chapter 6: Toward a Non-Idealist Evolutionary Synthesis Stuart A. Newman
Chapter 7: Evolvability and its Evolvability Alessandro Minelli
Chapter 8: Chance Caught on the Wing: Methodological Commitment or Methodological Artifact? Denis M. Walsh
Part 3: Inheritance
Chapter 9: Limited Extended Inheritance Francesca Merlin
Chapter 10: Heredity and Evolutionary Theory Tobias Uller and Heikki Helanterae
Chapter 11: Serial homology as a Challenge to Evolutionary Theory: The repeated parts of organisms from idealistic morphology to evo-devo Stephane Schmitt
Introduction
Challenging the Modern Synthesis 1
Denis M. Walsh and Philippe Huneman
Part 1: Adaptation and Selection
Chapter 1: Natural Selection, Adaptation, and the Recovery of Development David Depew
Chapter 2: Why would we call for a new evolutionary synthesis? The variation issue and the explanatory alternatives Philippe Huneman
Chapter 3: Genetic Assimilation and the Paradox of Blind Variation Arnaud Pocheville and Etienne Danchin
Chapter 4: Evolutionary Theory Evolving Patrick Bateson
Part 2: Development
Chapter 5: Evo-devo and the Structure(s) of Evolutionary Theory: A Different Kind of Challenge Alan C. Love
Chapter 6: Toward a Non-Idealist Evolutionary Synthesis Stuart A. Newman
Chapter 7: Evolvability and its Evolvability Alessandro Minelli
Chapter 8: Chance Caught on the Wing: Methodological Commitment or Methodological Artifact? Denis M. Walsh
Part 3: Inheritance
Chapter 9: Limited Extended Inheritance Francesca Merlin
Chapter 10: Heredity and Evolutionary Theory Tobias Uller and Heikki Helanterae
Chapter 11: Serial homology as a Challenge to Evolutionary Theory: The repeated parts of organisms from idealistic morphology to evo-devo Stephane Schmitt