In recent years, fairly far-reaching claims have been repeatedly made about how niche construction, the modification by organisms of their environment, and that of other organisms, represents a vastly neglected phenomenon in ecological and evolutionary thought. The proponents of this view claim that the niche construction perspective greatly expands the scope of standard evolutionary theory and that niche construction deserves to be treated as a significant evolutionary process in its own right, almost at par with natural selection. Claims have also been advanced about how niche construction theory represents a substantial extension to, and reorientation of, standard evolutionary theory, which is criticized as being narrowly gene-centric and ignoring the rich complexity and reciprocity of organism-environment interactions. We examine these claims in some detail and show that they do not stand up to scrutiny. We suggest that the manner in which niche construction theory is sought to be pushed in the literature is better viewed as an exercise in academic niche construction whereby, through incessant repetition of largely untenable claims, and the deployment of rhetorically appealing but logically dubious analogies, a receptive climate for a certain sub-discipline is sought to be manufactured within the scientific community. We see this as an unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable, nascent post-truth tendency within science.
peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/109793 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online 2 Abstract 31In recent years, fairly far-reaching claims have been repeatedly made about how niche 32 construction, the modification by organisms of their environment, and that of other organisms, 33 represents a vastly neglected phenomenon in ecological and evolutionary thought. The 34 proponents of this view claim that the niche construction perspective greatly expands the scope 35 of standard evolutionary theory and that niche construction deserves to be treated as a significant 36 evolutionary process in its own right, almost at par with natural selection. Claims have also been 37 advanced about how niche construction theory represents a substantial extension to, and re-38 orientation of, standard evolutionary theory, which is criticized as being narrowly gene-centric 39 and ignoring the rich complexity and reciprocity of organism-environment interactions. We 40 examine these claims in some detail and show that they do not stand up to scrutiny. We suggest 41 that the manner in which niche construction theory is sought to be pushed in the literature is 42 better viewed as an exercise in academic niche construction whereby, through incessant 43 repetition of largely untenable claims, and the deployment of rhetorically appealing but logically 44 dubious analogies, a receptive climate for a certain sub-discipline is sought to be manufactured 45 within the scientific community. We see this as an unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable, nascent 46 post-truth tendency within science.
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