Scaffold: A Causal Concept for Evolutionary Explanations

Abstract

The concept of scaffold is widespread in science and increasingly common in evolutionary biology. While this concept figures in causal explanations, it is not clear what scaffolds are and what role they play in those explanations. Here we present evolutionary scaffolding explanation as a distinct type of explanatory strategy, distinguishing it from other types of evolutionary explanation. By doing so, we clarify the meaning of “scaffold” as a causal concept and its potential contribution to accounts of evolutionary novelty and major transitions.

Individuality through ecology: Rethinking the evolution of complex life from an externalist perspective

“…As others have noted (see [3,[23][24][25]), development of the ecological scaffolding framework has marked a shift in the kinds of explanations available for the evolution of multicellularity and other major evolutionary transitions. In particular, it has drawn attention to the distinction between internalist and externalist perspectives (see Box 2 and Figure 1).…”

“…In particular, it has drawn attention to the distinction between internalist and externalist perspectives (see Box 2 and Figure 1). Commonly accepted internalist explanations for major evolutionary transitions recognize that the operative causes are internal to the individual entities or populations they constitute [3,[23][24][25]. In contrast, ecological scaffolding demonstrates that causality can reside in external or ecological factors [2-4, 22, 26-30].…”