What’s Wrong with Evolutionary Causation?

Baedke, Jan

doi:10.1007/s10441-020-09381-0

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…But for the second type of adaptive evolution the driving force is provided by the organism itself, or what we might call differential production of traits . A more active role of the organism in the evolutionary process is increasingly discussed in the literature (Lewontin, 1983 ; Sultan, 2015 ; Walsh, 2015 ; Godfrey‐Smith, 2017 ; Baedke, 2020 ). For example, while gene flow is typically treated as an evolutionary process that randomises gene pools and therefore counters the local adaptation of populations, when individuals actively choose their environments gene flow can actually favour local adaptation (Edelaar & Bolnick, 2012 ; Jacob et al ., 2017 ) and even result in adaptive speciation (Berner & Thibert‐Plante, 2015 ; Nicolaus & Edelaar, 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A generalised approach to the study and understanding of adaptive evolution

2022

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Evolutionary theory has made large impacts on our understanding and management of the world, in part because it has been able to incorporate new data and new insights successfully. Nonetheless, there is currently a tension between certain biological phenomena and mainstream evolutionary theory. For example, how does the inheritance of molecular epigenetic changes fit into mainstream evolutionary theory? Is niche construction an evolutionary process? Is local adaptation via habitat choice also adaptive evolution? These examples suggest there is scope (and perhaps even a need) to broaden our views on evolution. We identify three aspects whose incorporation into a single framework would enable a more generalised approach to the understanding and study of adaptive evolution: (i) a broadened view of extended phenotypes; (ii) that traits can respond to each other; and (iii) that inheritance can be non‐genetic. We use causal modelling to integrate these three aspects with established views on the variables and mechanisms that drive and allow for adaptive evolution. Our causal model identifies natural selection and non‐genetic inheritance of adaptive parental responses as two complementary yet distinct and independent drivers of adaptive evolution. Both drivers are compatible with the Price equation; specifically, non‐genetic inheritance of parental responses is captured by an often‐neglected component of the Price equation. Our causal model is general and simplified, but can be adjusted flexibly in terms of variables and causal connections, depending on the research question and/or biological system. By revisiting the three examples given above, we show how to use it as a heuristic tool to clarify conceptual issues and to help design empirical research. In contrast to a gene‐centric view defining evolution only in terms of genetic change, our generalised approach allows us to see evolution as a change in the whole causal structure, consisting not just of genetic but also of phenotypic and environmental variables.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A generalised approach to the study and understanding of adaptive evolution

2022

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“…In the 1990s, biological structuralism rose against neo-Darwinism to embrace internalist, structural explanations over the externalist, functional focus of selectionism (Goodwin 1990). It was refuted as it radically rejects the power of natural selection (Baedke 2021).…”

Section: Proponents Of Modernmentioning

confidence: 99%