In this book Ron Amundson examines 200 years of scientific views on the evolution-development relationship from the perspective of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). This new perspective challenges several popular views about the history of evolutionary thought by claiming that many earlier authors made history come out right for the Evolutionary Synthesis. The book starts with a revised history of nineteenth-century evolutionary thought. It then investigates how development became irrelevant to evolution with the Evolutionary Synthesis. It concludes with an examination of the contrasts that persist between mainstream evolutionary theory and evo-devo.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"This is revisionist history at its best. The death of Ernst Mayr, the last surviving father of the modern synthesis, makes the publication of this important book all the more timely.... Highly recommended...."
--CHOICE
"The Changing Role of the Embryo paints a fascinating portrait of the ways in which histories of biology have served as philosophical weapons legitimizing specific forms of biological theory and practice...Philosophers of biology, historians of biology, and practicing biologists with an interest in history, should all read this book...."
--Erika Lorraine Milam, Clemson University, Journal of the History of Biology
"... As The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought demonstrates, understanding the deep epistemological and conceptual foundations of current research practices is clearly valuable. Amundson has taken an important first step, focusing largely on conceptual and ontological incompatibilities between scientific theories, thus suggesting some order among the ruins."
--Science
--CHOICE
"The Changing Role of the Embryo paints a fascinating portrait of the ways in which histories of biology have served as philosophical weapons legitimizing specific forms of biological theory and practice...Philosophers of biology, historians of biology, and practicing biologists with an interest in history, should all read this book...."
--Erika Lorraine Milam, Clemson University, Journal of the History of Biology
"... As The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought demonstrates, understanding the deep epistemological and conceptual foundations of current research practices is clearly valuable. Amundson has taken an important first step, focusing largely on conceptual and ontological incompatibilities between scientific theories, thus suggesting some order among the ruins."
--Science
Book Description
In this book Ron Amundson examines 200 years of scientific views on the evolution-development relationship from the perspective of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). This new perspective challenges several popular views about the history of evolutionary thought by claiming that many earlier authors made history come out right for the Evolutionary Synthesis.
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This review is from: The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) (Hardcover)
This gives a great view of the history of evo-devo. My supervisor, one of the reviewers of the book, had joked that it was fantastic "even though it was written by a philosopher".
Admundson gives a great analysis on the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis and its dominance in biological thought. As well, the section on heredity was fantastic as I had been mulling these same ideas over for some time before I came across this, which really helped crystalize things. In short, the notion of heredity was pirated from developmental biology by the geneticists(T Morgan and followers), and this had long term consequences for developmental biology in evolutionary theory. Perfect example today is that "heritability" is stricly a population level concept, which is at odds whith heredity as understood by developmental biologist. However, it seems clear that "heritability" in the individual is a neessary precondition to detection of "heritability" in a population. Failing to recognize the importance of "developmental heredity" will mean that the neo-darwinian synthesis will be incomplete. Get this book. If you don't know the history of your discipline, you can't understand it fully.
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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species fixism, species fixist, hereditary determinates, morphological goal, narrow heredity, ontogenetic causation, taxonomic realism, structuralist biology, explanatory relativity, idealist biology, evolutionary morphologists, taxonomic unity, parental resemblances, vertebrate archetype, phylogenetic organization, urodele limb, developmental types, evolutionary causation, evolutionary morphology, scala natura, empirical accessibility, population thinker, evolutionary synthesis, idealistic morphology, many embryologists Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Essentialism Story, Ernst Mayr, Vertebrate Archetype, Developmental Paradox, Synthesis Historiography, Causal Completeness Principle, Darwin's Origin, Richard Owen, Bridgewater Treatise, Charles Darwin, David Hull, Peter Bowler, Extrapolation Principle, Maynard Smith, Martin Barry, Nature of Limbs, Cold Spring Harbor, Brian Hall, Stephen Jay Gould, Adaptive Rule, Frank Lillie, Owen's Platonism, Sewall Wright, Adam Sedgwick, Gunter Wagner New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
species fixism, species fixist, hereditary determinates, morphological goal, narrow heredity, ontogenetic causation, taxonomic realism, structuralist biology, explanatory relativity, idealist biology, evolutionary morphologists, taxonomic unity, parental resemblances, vertebrate archetype, phylogenetic organization, urodele limb, developmental types, evolutionary causation, evolutionary morphology, scala natura, empirical accessibility, population thinker, evolutionary synthesis, idealistic morphology, many embryologists Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Essentialism Story, Ernst Mayr, Vertebrate Archetype, Developmental Paradox, Synthesis Historiography, Causal Completeness Principle, Darwin's Origin, Richard Owen, Bridgewater Treatise, Charles Darwin, David Hull, Peter Bowler, Extrapolation Principle, Maynard Smith, Martin Barry, Nature of Limbs, Cold Spring Harbor, Brian Hall, Stephen Jay Gould, Adaptive Rule, Frank Lillie, Owen's Platonism, Sewall Wright, Adam Sedgwick, Gunter Wagner New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 44
books:
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1
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cites this book:
- On the Origin of Species (Penguin Classics) by Charles Darwin on 5 pages
- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin on 5 pages
- Evolution: The Modern Synthesis by Julian Huxley on page 160, and page 191
- Natural Selection (Phoenix 60p paperbacks) by Charles Darwin on page 75, and page 160
- Charles Darwin: 2 by Julian Huxley on page 47, and page 162
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