Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered

by Weber, Bruce H.

• ISBN13: 9780262731812
• ISBN10: 0262731819
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-03-01
• Publisher: MIT PRESS

Summary

The role of genetic inheritance dominates current evolutionary theory. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, several evolutionary theorists independently speculated that learned behaviors could also affect the direction and rate of evolutionary change. This notion was called the Baldwin effect, after the psychologist James Mark Baldwin. In recent years, philosophers and theorists of a variety of ontological and epistemological backgrounds have begun to employ the Baldwin effect in their accounts of the evolutionary emergence of mind and of how mind, through behavior, might affect evolution. The essays in this book discuss the originally proposed Baldwin effect, how it was modified over time, and its possible contribution to contemporary empirical and theoretical evolutionary studies. The topics include the effect of the modern evolutionary synthesis on the notion of the Baldwin effect, the nature and role of niche construction in contemporary evolutionary theory, the Baldwin effect in the context of developmental systems theory, the possible role of the Baldwin effect in computational cognitive science biosemiotics, and the emergence of consciousness and language.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Baldwin Boosters, Baldwin Skeptics
Baldwin and His Many Effects	p. 3
Baldwin Effects and the Expansion of the Explanatory Repertoire in Evolutionary Biology	p. 33
Between Baldwin Skepticism and Baldwin Boosterism	p. 53
The Baldwin Effect: A Crane, Not a Skyhook	p. 69
Multilevel Selection in a Complex Adaptive System: The Problem of Language Origins	p. 81
Postscript on the Baldwin Effect and Niche Construction	p. 107
Baldwinism and Development
Evolution, Development, and the Individual Acquisition of Traits: What We've Learned since Baldwin	p. 115
Baldwin and Beyond: Organic Selection and Genetic Assimilation	p. 141
On Having a Hammer	p. 169
Beyond the Baldwin Effect: James Mark Baldwin's "Social Heredity," Epigenetic Inheritance, and Niche Construction	p. 193
Beyond Baldwinism
The Baldwin Effect in the Age of Computation	p. 219
The Role of Predator-Induced Polyphenism in the Evolution of Cognition: A Baldwinian Speculation	p. 235
Baldwin and Biosemiotics: What Intelligence Is For	p. 253
The Hierarchic Logic of Emergence: Untangling the Interdependence of Evolution and Self-Organization	p. 273
Emergence of Mind and the Baldwin Effect	p. 309
Index	p. 327
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