Cycles of Contingency Developmental Systems and Evolution

by Oyama, Susan; Gray, Russell D.; Griffiths, Paul E.

• ISBN13: 9780262650632
• ISBN10: 0262650630
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-24
• Publisher: Bradford Books

Summary

The nature/nurture debate is not dead. Dichotomous views of development still underlie many fundamental debates in the biological and social sciences. Developmental systems theory (DST) offers a new conceptual framework with which to resolve such debates. DST views ontogeny as contingent cycles of interaction among a varied set of developmental resources, no one of which controls the process. These factors include DNA, cellular and organismic structure, and social and ecological interactions. DST has excited interest from a wide range of researchers, from molecular biologists to anthropologists, because of its ability to integrate evolutionary theory and other disciplines without falling into traditional oppositions. The book provides historical background to DST, recent theoretical findings on the mechanisms of heredity, applications of the DST framework to behavioral development, implications of DST for the philosophy of biology, and critical reactions to DST.

Author Biography

Susan Oyama is Professor of Psychology, Emerita, at John Jay College, and at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York City.

Russell D. Gray is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Auckland.

Paul E. Griffiths is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Contributors	p. xi
Introduction: What Is Developmental Systems Theory?	p. 1
Influences	p. 13
Toward a Systems View of Development: An Appraisal of Lehrman's Critique of Lorenz	p. 15
A Critique of Konrad Lorenz's Theory of Instinctive Behavior	p. 25
A Developmental Psychobiological Systems View: Early Formulation and Current Status	p. 41
Gene, Organism and Environment: A New Introduction	p. 55
Gene, Organism and Environment	p. 59
Rethinking Heredity	p. 67
Let's Talk about Genes: The Process Molecular Gene Concept and Its Context	p. 69
Deconstructing the Gene and Reconstructing Molecular Developmental Systems	p. 85
The Systems of Inheritance	p. 99
Niche Construction, Ecological Inheritance, and Cycles of Contingency in Evolution	p. 117
The Development of Phenotypes and Behavior	p. 127
The Ontogeny of Phenotypes	p. 129
The Development of Ant Colony Behavior	p. 141
Behavioral Development and Drawinian Evolution	p. 149
Parental Care and Development	p. 167
Rethinking Development and Evolution	p. 175
Terms in Tension: What Do You Do When All the Good Words Are Taken?	p. 177
Darwinism and Developmental Systems	p. 195
Generative Entrenchment and the Developmental Systems Approach to Evolutionary Processes	p. 219
Developmental Systems, Darwinian Evolution, and the Unity of Science	p. 239
From Complementarity to Obviation: On Dissolving the Boundaries between Social and Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, and Psychology	p. 255
Responses to Developmental Systems Theory	p. 281
On the Status and Explanatory Structure of Developmental Systems Theory	p. 283
Beyond the Gene but Beneath the Skin	p. 299
Distributed Agency within Intersecting Ecological, Social, and Scientific Processes	p. 313
Niche Construction, Developmental Systems, and the Extended Replicator	p. 333
Developmental Systems Theory and Ethics: Different Ways to Be Normative with Regard to Science	p. 351
Index	p. 363
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