Evolutionary causation / Tobias Uller and Kevin N. Laland -- Causality and the role of philosophy of science / Massimo Pigliucci -- Understanding bias in the introduction of variation as an evolutionary cause / Arlin Stoltzfus -- The shape of things to come: evo devo perspectives on causes and consequences in evolution / Armin P. Moczek -- Incorporating the environmentally sensitive phenotype into evolutionary thinking / David I. Dayan, Melissa A. Graham, John A. Baker, and Susan A. Foster -- Genotype-environment interaction and the unscripted reaction norm / Sonia E. Sultan -- Understanding niche construction as an evolutionary process / Kevin N. Laland, John Odling-Smee, and Marcus W. Feldman -- Biological dynamics and evolutionary causation / Renee A. Duckworth -- The causes of a major transition: how social insects traverse Darwinian space / Heikki Helanteran and Tobias Uller -- Are developmental plasticity, niche construction and extended inheritance necessary for evolution by natural selection? The role of active phenotypes in the minimal criteria for Darwinian individuality / Richard A. Watson and Christoph Thies -- The paradox of population thinking: first order causes and higher order effects / Denis M. Walsh -- Ontology, causality, and methodology of evolutionary research programs / Jun Otsuka -- A Darwinian dream: on time, levels, and processes in evolution / Arnaud Pocheville -- Decoupling, commingling, and the evolutionary significance of experiential niche construction / Lynn Chiu -- Biological information in developmental and evolutionary systems / Karola Stotz.
Summary:
"Most scientific explanations are causal. This is also the case in evolutionary biology, where the primary goals are to explain the diversity of life and the adaptive fit between organisms and their surroundings. Despite the central role of the nature of causation in evolutionary biology, the outstanding issues are rarely addressed. Evolutionary biology textbooks, for instance, hardly ever cover this topic. This edited volume brings together biologists and philosophers of science to provide a comprehensive treatment of evolutionary causation. The contributions clarify the nature of causation in the historical and contemporary representation of evolution, specify alternative perspectives and reveal their underlying assumptions, and seek ways of thinking about causation that will be helpful to formulate research programs in evolutionary biology. The volume will help to understand the historical roots of the contemporary view of evolutionary causation, the biological motivation for rethinking the nature of causation in evolutionary biology, and conceptual analysis of these phenomena in the broader context of the philosophy of causation"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.