The Modern Synthesis: Evolution and the Organization of Information PDF
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Evolutionary Biology New Perspectives on Its Development 4 Thomas E. Dickins The Modern Synthesis Evolution and the Organization of Information – Evolutionary Biology New Perspectives on Its Development Volume 4 SeriesEditor Richard G. Delisle, Department of Philosophy and School of Liberal Education, UniversityofLethbridge,Lethbridge,AB,Canada EditorialBoardMembers Richard Bellon, Lyman Briggs Coll, Rm E35, Michigan State University, East Lansing,MI,USA DanielR.Brooks,DepartmentofEcologyandEvolutionaryBiology,Universityof Toronto,Toronto,ON,Canada Joe Cain, Department of Science and Tech Studies, University College London, London,UK DavidCeccarelli,UniversityofRomeTorVergata,DepartmentofHistory,Cultural Heritage,EducationandSociety,ROMA,Roma,Italy Thomas E. Dickins, Middlesex University, Department of Psychology, Faculty of ScienceandTechnology,London,UK RuiDiogo,HowardUniversity,Washington,DC,USA Maurizio Esposito, University of Lisbon, Interuniversity Center for the History of ScienceandTechnology,LISBOA,Portugal Ulrich Kutschera, Institute of Biology, University of Kassel, Kassel, Hessen, Germany Georgy S. Levit, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Biology Education Research Group(Bienenhaus),Jena,Thüringen,Germany LaurentLoison,InstitutefortheHistoryandPhilosophyofScienceandTechnology (IHPST),Paris,France Jeffrey H. Schwartz, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh,PA,USA Ian Tattersall, Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, NewYork,NY,USA Derek D. Turner, Department of Philosophy, Connecticut College, New London, CT,USA Jitse M. van den Meer, Department of Biology, Redeemer University College, Ancaster,Canada Evolutionary biology has been a remarkably dynamic area since its foundation. Its truecomplexity,however,hasbeenconcealedinthelast50yearsunderanassumed opposition between the “Extended Evolutionary Synthesis” and an “Alternative to the Evolutionary Synthesis”. This multidisciplinary book series aims to move beyondthenotionthatthedevelopmentofevolutionarybiologyisstructuredaround alastingtensionbetweenaDarwiniantraditionandanon-Darwiniantradition,once dominatedbycategorieslikeDarwinianRevolution,EclipseofDarwinism, Evolu- tionarySynthesis,andPost-SyntheticDevelopments. The monographs and edited volumes of the series propose an alternative to this traditional outlook with the explicit aim of fostering new thinking habits about evolutionary biology, a multifaceted area composed of changing and interacting researchentitiesandexplanatorylevels.Contributionsbybiologistsandhistorians/ philosophers are welcomed. Topics covered in the series span from (among many otherpossibilities): (cid:129) AnOverviewofNeutralistTheoriesinEvolutionaryBiology (cid:129) DevelopmentalBiology:FromReductionismtoHolismandBack (cid:129) SelectionTheoriesBeyondHardandSoftInheritance (cid:129) Divergent, Parallel, and Reticulate Evolution: Competing or Complementary ResearchPrograms? (cid:129) TheRiseofMolecularBiology:BetweenDarwinianandNon-Darwinian (cid:129) BiologizingPaleontology:ATraditionwithDeepHistoricalRoots (cid:129) TheDarwinianRevolutionandtheEclipseofDarwinism:BlurringtheHistorio- graphicalLines (cid:129) Darwinism, Lamarckism, Orthogenesis: Can We Really Define Them by Their HardExplanatoryCores? (cid:129) TheEvolutionarySynthesis:AFabricatedConcept? (cid:129) TheOppositiontotheEvolutionarySynthesis:CriticizingaPhantom? (cid:129) AReversedPerspective:ApproachingCharlesDarwinfromthePre-1859Period (cid:129) TheLongDevelopmentoftheMultilevelParadigminEvolutionaryBiology (cid:129) Self-Organization:AResearchTraditionfromMorphologytoCosmology (cid:129) HumanEvolution:SociobiologicalorSociocultural? Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/16175 Thomas E. Dickins The Modern Synthesis Evolution and the Organization of Information ThomasE.Dickins DepartmentofPsychology MiddlesexUniversity London,UK ISSN2524-7751 ISSN2524-776X (electronic) EvolutionaryBiology–NewPerspectivesonItsDevelopment ISBN978-3-030-86421-7 ISBN978-3-030-86422-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86422-4 #SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2021 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthe materialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation, broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors, and the editorsare safeto assume that the adviceand informationin this bookarebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublishernortheauthorsor theeditorsgiveawarranty,expressedorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforany errorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictional claimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. CoverphotobyGLadyislicensedunderCC0 https://pixabay.com/photos/mosaic-fish-tile-art-ceramic-200864 ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG. Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland To David, Anne, and Ben, for their love and inspiration. To Nicola, Jack, and Isabella, for their unwavering love and support. Preface Forthelast15yearsIhavebeenrespondingtorecentcriticalanalysesoftheModern Synthesis in evolutionary biology. These analyses take several forms, but many of them focus upon therole of development inevolution withsome claiming that the ModernSynthesisneglecteddevelopmentduringitsformation.Thisneglecthasled, some argue, to a focus upon population thinking and to giving the gene causal priorityinexplanations.Thiscomplaintiscloselyalignedwiththelatterstagesofthe synthesis, a period critics associate with adaptationism and a focus upon natural selectionasthemaincauseofevolution.Thesolutionistoincorporatedevelopment and to build a mechanistic theory of the emergence of form as part of a renewed evolutionarytheory.Inthisway,theModernSynthesisistobeextendedtoincorpo- rate new phenomena but also new explanatory structures. However, while those seekingextensionrelyuponthemostrecentofbiologicalfindingstoilluminatecore phenomena,theirexplanatorystructuresowemuchtohistoricapproachestoevolu- tion grounded in transformational thinking. This observation does not amount to a criticism,becauseitisalwayspossibletothrowthebabyoutwiththebathwater.But it is to note that the proposed Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is to be created by incorporatingdevelopmentalphenomenaaswellastheoriesthathaveatleastapart oftheiroriginsinpre-Darwinianthought.Theextensionreachesintothepastandthe presentfromapointsomewhereinthemiddleofthetwentiethcentury. Springer’s book series—Evolutionary Biology: New Perspectives on Its Devel- opment—takes a multidisciplinary view of evolutionarybiology and aims tomove beyond the dichotomous tension between a modern and an extended evolutionary synthesis,betweenDarwinianandnon-Darwinianmodesofthought.Theseriesaims to bring new thinking to well-worn debates. During my own production of papers and reviews in response to specific claims from advocates of an Extended Evolu- tionarySynthesisIhaverealizedjusthowcomplex,subtle,anddynamicevolution- arytheoryinfactis.WhileIamcommittedtoaversionoftheModernSynthesis,I feltthatmyparticularversionofitneededscrutinyandfullexposure,asdidthecore assumptionsattheheartofmycriticismofextension.TothatendIdecidedtowrite thisbook-lengthtreatment. I describe this book as an Easter Egg. The outer shell, which is the initial presentationthereadermeets,isanegativethesis:Idonotthinkanyoftheproposals foranextendedsynthesisworkintheirowntermsforanalyticreasonsthatIgive.Of vii viii Preface course, in doing this I am aware that I am presenting my own axiomatic take on things,butmyhopeisthatinexplicitlyexposingthatitwillatleasthelptoclarifythe mechanics of the debate. But inside the Easter Egg is a positive thesis, which I believeisanewperspectiveinkeepingwiththeambitionsofthebookseries.Ithink that a principal source of disagreement between those defending the Modern Syn- thesis and those advocating for extension has been around the concept of informa- tion. Information has been persistently used to make claims for and about the Modern Synthesis, most especially with reference to genes and developmental programs, and this usage has been loose and colloquial. As a result, a semantic viewofinformation,ofinformationassomethingcontentfulandoutintheworldto be harvested, to deliver instruction, has come to be the default interpretation of information. Informationhas been objectified, and this is a mistake. Informationis instead a functional relationship between an input and a system, between data and context.Thisviewseesinformationassomethingrealizedbysystems.Inthissense, information is the consequence of the proximate operations of biological systems, andevolutionorganizesthosesystems,andhenceorganizesinformation.Ithinkthis view of information is embedded within the Modern Synthesis, and I demonstrate thisbyapplyingittorelevantargumentsthroughoutthebook.Butitisalsoaview closely aligned with aspects of developmental systems theory, which has strongly influenced the movement for extension of the Modern Synthesis. My belief is that acceptanceofthisviewofinformation willleadtoadifferent understandingofthe ModernSynthesis,andremovethecriticalclaimsbasedaroundgenecentrism. In the final chapter, I draw all of this together and make comment on the theoretical aspirations of those pursuing the Modern Synthesis and those seeking extension. In my closing comments, I claim that the Modern Synthesis is a frame- work theory, founded in an axiomatic structure. As a framework it acts to corral non-axiomatic theories of development, and other phenomena, by setting the parameters for their explanations. This structure is one delivered in the service of anidea,andthatideahasbeentheunificationofbiology.Presently,Iseenoreasonto abandonit. London,UK ThomasE.Dickins Acknowledgments Manypeoplehavediscussedtheideasinthisbookwithme.IamindebtedtoKevin Laland, John Odling-Smee, and Tobias Uller for discussion and formal debate around the concept of an extended evolutionary synthesis at points over the last 15 years. While I find myself in opposition to their views, I have benefitted from listening to their advocacy, as well as from reading their work. Ben Dickins (my brother), Edgar Porcher, Max Steuer, Paul Taylor, Richard Webb, and Andy Wells have all read and critically discussed draft chapters during our weekly meetings convened on Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic, but under the aus- pices of the London School of Economics (LSE). This was a tremendous service, andIamthankfulfortheirpatienceandguidance.TheCentreforthePhilosophyof NaturalandSocialSciencesattheLSEhassupportedthisprojectbycontinuingmy honorary position as a Research Associate. This role has led to many useful conversations over the years, and Helena Cronin must be thanked for bringing me intothiscreative,theoreticalfold.OliverCurryandQaziRahmanarestillpartaking inalongconversationwithmeabouthowtothinkaboutbiology,andtheirinsights anddifferentwaysofthinkinghaveprovedimportantstimuliformyowndevelop- ment. Daniel Nettle has had a huge impact on my thinking, and I am particularly grateful for his endurance and inputs on a walk in 2021, when I talked incessantly about evolutionary developmental biology. Occasional email correspondence with LouiseBarrett,DavidHaig,DouglasFutuyma,ThomScott-Phillips,DavidShuker, BettySmocovitis,ErikSvensson,andStuWestoverthelastfewyearshasenhanced mythinkingandhighlightederrorstoo.Theyhavethisincommonwiththemembers of the Behavioral Science Lab at Middlesex University: Claire Gellard, Warren Horrod-Wilson,AmandaMead,KirstyNeller,SabrinaSchalz,andJonathanSigger. Theeditor-in-chiefofthebookseriesintowhichthisfalls,RichardDelisle,hasbeen enormouslysupportiveandencouragingashavetheteamatSpringer. My father, David Dickins, provided a critical read-through of the book. His zoological and psychological insights have been as useful as ever, and it is his intereststhatfirstcaughtmyattentionasaboy.Similarly,mymother,AnneDickins, has continuously dropped adroit, geologically inspired comments throughout my educationandcareer.WithparentssuchastheseIwascanalizedtowardevolutionary theory, as was my brother. Finally, I could not have considered writing this book without the support of my wife, Nicola, and the enthusiasms of my children, Jack ix x Acknowledgments andIsabella.Nicolahassupportedanoddworkingregime,obsessivehabits,andmy near constant disappearance to “just add something” in my office all the while patiently bringing tea and coffee. My children’s interests in natural history have drawnmeintonaturetowatchandlearn.Andthatisreallywhatmatters.
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