Form and Transformation: Generative and Relational Principles in Biology

by Gerry Webster , Brian Goodwin

• ISBN13: 9780521207430
• ISBN10: 0521207436
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection focuses on inheritance and survival without attempting to explain the forms organisms take. The first part of Form and Transformation looks critically at the conceptual structure of Darwinism and describes the limitations of the theory of evolution. The authors argue that a theory of biological form is needed to understand the structure of organisms and their transformations. The second part of the book explores such a theory by portraying organisms as developing and dynamic systems, within which gene action is understandable. The authors present a number of specific examples, including tetrapod limb formation and Drosophila development, to illustrate how these dynamic organisms produce generic forms.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

The Problem of Form

Introduction: forms and kinds

The old dialectic: empirical classification and Darwinian theory

The ontological status of Taxa: material practice

The ontological status of Taxa: theoretical practice

Rational systematics and morphogenetic theory: a new dialectic?

Putting the organism together again

Fields and Forms

Segments, symmetries, and epigenetic maps

The unitary morphogenetic field

A generative biology

References

Index

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