What Darwin Got Wrong PDF
Preview What Darwin Got Wrong
ALSO BY JERRY FODOR LOT 2: The Language of Thought Revisited Hume Variations The Compositionality Papers In Critical Condition Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong The Elm and the Expert: Mentalese and Its Semantics Holism: A Shopper's Guide A Theory of Content and Other Essays Psychosemantics: The Problem of Meaning in the Philosophy of Mind The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology Representations: Philosophical Essays on the Foundations of Cognitive Science The Psychology of Language Psychological Explanation The Structure of Language ALSO BY MASSIMO PIATTELLI-PALMARINI Of Minds and Language: A Dialogue with Noam Chomsky in the Basque Country Inevitable lllusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds Language and Learning: The Debate Between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky WHAT DARWIN GOT WRONG WHAT DARWIN GOT WRONG Jerry Fodor Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini Farrar, Straus and Giroux New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux 18 West 18th Street, New York 1001 I Copyright © 2010 by Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Distributed in Canada by D&M Publishers, Inc. Originally published in 20IO by Profile Books Ltd, Great Britain Published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux First American edition, 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fodor, Jerry A. What Darwin got wrong I Jerry Fodor, Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-374-28879-2 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Natural selection. 2. Evolution (Biology)-Philosophy. I. Piattelli-Palmarini, Massimo. II. Title. QH37S·F6320IO S76.8'2-dc22 www.fsgbooks.com 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 It is perfectly safe to attribute this development to 'natural selec tion' so long as we realize that there is no substance to this asser tion; that it amounts to no more than a belief that there is some naturalistic explanation for these phenomena. Noam Chomsky, Language and Mind, 1972 I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and bal ancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 1859 If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could nor possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 1859 CONTENTS Acknowledgements xii Terms of engagement xiii I What kind of theory is the theory of natural selection? I Part one THE BIOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 2 Internal constraints: what the new biology tells us 19 3 Whole genomes, networks, modules and other complexities 40 4 Many constraints, many environments 57 5 The return of the laws of form 72 Part two THE CONCEPTUAL SITUATION 6 Many are called but few are chosen: the problem of 'selection-for' 95 7 No exit? Some responses to the problem of 'selection-for' 117 8 Did the dodo lose its ecological niche? Or was it the other way around? 139 9 Summary and postlude 153 Appendix 165 Notes 181 References 225 Index 249 vii DETAILED CONTENTS Acknowledgements Xll Terms of engagement Xlll I What kind of theory is the theory of natural selection? I Introduction I Natural selection considered as a black box 3 Operant conditioning theory considered as a black box 4 Proprietary constraints (I): iterativity 5 Proprietary constraints (2.): environmentalism 6 Proprietary constraints (3): gradualism 7 Proprietary constraints (4): monotonicity 9 Proprietary constraints (5): locality 10 Proprietary constraints (6): mindlessness II Thinking inside the boxes 13 The mechanism of learning according to operant conditioning theory The mechanism of selection according to evolutionary theory 15 Part one THE BIOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 2. Internal constraints: what the new biology tells us 19 Natural selection is real, of course (when properly construed) 2.0 Unidimensionality 2.2. Beanbag genetics 2.5 Internal constraints and filters: 'evo-devo' 2.7 Some (undue) perplexities about the evo-devo revolution 30 viii
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