Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Gregersen, Niels Henrik

Titel

THE EXPLORATION OF ECOSPACE: EXTENDING OR SUPPLEMENTING THE NEO‐DARWINIAN PARADIGM?: with Fraser Watts and Michael J. Reiss, “Holistic Biology: What It Is and Why It Matters”; Michael Ruse, “The Christian's Dilemma: Organicism or Mechanism?”; David J. Depew and Bruce H. Weber, “Developmental Biology, Natural Selection, and the Conceptual Boundaries of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis”; Ilya Gadjev, “Epigenetics, Representation, and Society”; Harris Wiseman, “Systems Biology and Predictive Neuroscience: A Double Helical Approach”; Richard Gunton and Francis Gilbert, “Laws in Eco

Ist Teil von

• Zygon, 2017-06, Vol.52 (2), p.561-586

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Abstract The neo‐Darwinian paradigm, focusing on natural selection of genes responsible for differential adaption, provides the foundation for explaining evolutionary processes. The modern synthesis is broader, however, focusing on organisms rather than on gene transmissions per se. Yet, strands of current biology argue for further supplementation of Darwinian theory, pointing to nonbiotic drivers of evolutionary development, for example, self‐organization of physical structures, and the interaction between individual organisms, groups of organisms, and their nonbiotic environments. According to niche construction theory, when organisms and groups develop, they not only adapt to their environments but modify their environments, creating new habitats for later generations. Insofar as ecological niches persist beyond the lifecycle of individual organisms, an ecological inheritance system exists alongside genetic inheritance. Such ecological structures may even facilitate the development of a cultural inheritance system, as we see in humans. The article discusses theological perspectives of such new developments within holistic biology.