Evolutionary Worlds without End
Henry Plotkin
Abstract
The book examines the issue of whether there is any general theory in the biological and social sciences that has similar explanatory power to the general theories of physics. Specifically selection theory and niche construction are deemed to have wide explanatory scope within the transformation of species, certain forms of learning and knowledge gain, the operation of the vertebrate immune system, and the way science itself operates as a process. Cultural change in general is also assessed as a possible consequence of selection processes. It is concluded that in addition to the selection and ... More
The book examines the issue of whether there is any general theory in the biological and social sciences that has similar explanatory power to the general theories of physics. Specifically selection theory and niche construction are deemed to have wide explanatory scope within the transformation of species, certain forms of learning and knowledge gain, the operation of the vertebrate immune system, and the way science itself operates as a process. Cultural change in general is also assessed as a possible consequence of selection processes. It is concluded that in addition to the selection and construction processes themselves, the complexity of the multiple forms of co-evolving selection processes operating at different levels of selection must be considered as an essential part of any general theory.
Keywords:
selection processes,
co-evolution,
evolutionary epistemology,
architecture of complexity
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199544950 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544950.001.0001 |