Evolution In Four Dimensions

by Jablonka, Eva; Lamb, Marion J.; Zeligowski, Anna

• ISBN13: 9780262101073
• ISBN10: 0262101076
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-15
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Ideas about heredity and evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. New findings in molecular biology challenge the gene-centered version of Darwinian theory according to which adaptation occurs only through natural selection of chance DNA variations. In Evolution in Four Dimensions, Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb argue that there is more to heredity than genes. They trace four "dimensions" in evolution-four inheritance systems that play a role in evolution: genetic, epigenetic (or non-DNA cellular transmission of traits), behavioral, and symbolic (transmission through language and other forms of symbolic communication). These systems, they argue, can all provide variations on which natural selection can act. Evolution in Four Dimensionsoffers a richer, more complex view of evolution than the gene-based, one-dimensional view held by many today. The new synthesis advanced by Jablonka and Lamb makes clear that induced and acquired changes also play a role in evolution. After discussing each of the four inheritance systems in detail, Jablonka and Lamb "put Humpty Dumpty together again" by showing how all of these systems interact. They consider how each may have originated and guided evolutionary history and they discuss the social and philosophical implications of the four-dimensional view of evolution. Each chapter ends with a dialogue in which the authors engage the contrarieties of the fictional (and skeptical) "I.M.," or Ifcha Mistabra-Aramaic for "the opposite conjecture"-refining their arguments against I.M.'s vigorous counterarguments. The lucid and accessible text is accompanied by artist-physician Anna Zeligowski's lively drawings, which humorously and effectively illustrate the authors' points.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Prologue	1	(4)
I The First Dimension	5	(104)
1 The Transformations of Darwinism	9	(38)
2 From Genes to Characters	47	(32)
3 Genetic Variation: Blind, Directed, Interpretive?	79	(30)
II Three More Dimensions	109	(124)
4 The Epigenetic Inheritance Systems	113	(42)
5 The Behavioral Inheritance Systems	155	(38)
6 The Symbolic Inheritance System	193	(40)
Between the Acts: An Interim Summary	233	(6)
III Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again	239	(146)
7 Interacting Dimensions-Genes and Epigenetic Systems	245	(40)
8 Genes and Behavior, Genes and Language	285	(34)
9 Lamarckism Evolving: The Evolution of the Educated Guess	319	(36)
10 A Last Dialogue	355	(30)
Notes	385	(32)
Bibliography	417	(30)
Index	447