Thinking about Evolution: Historical, Philosophical, and Political Perspectives, Volume 2Rama S. Singh This is the second of two volumes published by Cambridge University Press in honor of Richard Lewontin. The first volume, Evolutionary Genetics from Molecules to Morphology, honors Lewontin's more technical contributions to genetics and evolutionary biology. This second volume of essays honors the philosophical, historical, and political dimensions of his work. Given the range of Lewontin's own contributions, it is fitting that the volume covers such a wide range of perspectives on modern biology. He was a very successful practitioner of evolutionary genetics, a rigorous critic of the practices of genetics and evolutionary biology, as well as an articulate analyst of the social, political, and economic contexts and consequences of genetic and evolutionary research. The volume contains an essay by Lewontin on Natural History and Formalism in Evolutionary Genetics, and an extended interview with Lewontin, covering the history of evolutionary genetics as seen from his perspective and exemplified by his career. The remaining chapters, contributed by former students, post-docs, colleagues, and collaborators, cover issues ranging from the history and conceptual foundations of evolutionary biology and genetics, to the implications of human genetic diversity, to the political economy of agriculture and public health. |
Contents
Natural History and Formalism in Evolutionary Genetics | 7 |
History of and in Evolutionary Biology | 21 |
Interview of R C Lewontin | 22 |
Hannah Arendt and Karl Popper Darwinism Historical Determinism and Totalitarianism | 62 |
The Genetics of Experimental Populations LHeritier and Teissiers Population Cages | 77 |
Did Eugenics Rest on an Elementary Mistake? | 103 |
Can the Norm of Reaction Save the Gene Concept? | 119 |
The Apportionment of Human Diversity 25 Years Later | 141 |
Evolvability Adaptation and Modularity | 322 |
Organism and Environment Revisited | 336 |
An Irreducible Component of Cognition | 353 |
From Natural Selection to Natural Construction to Disciplining Unruly Complexity The Challenge of Integrating Ecological Dynamics into Evolution... | 377 |
The Politics of Evolutionary Biology | 395 |
Battling the Undead How and How Not to Resist Genetic Determinism | 396 |
The Poverty of Reductionism | 415 |
Behavior Genetics Galens Prophecy or Malpighis Legacy? | 429 |
The Indian Caste System Human Diversity and Genetic Determinism | 152 |
Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology | 183 |
Selfish Genes or Developmental Systems? | 184 |
The Evolutionary Definition of Selective Agency Validation of the Theory of Hierarchical Selection and Fallacy of the Selfish Gene | 208 |
Reductionism in Genetics and the Human Genome Project | 235 |
Organism Environment and Dialectics | 253 |
Units and Levels of Selection An Anatomy of the Units of Selection Debates | 267 |
In Defense of NeoDarwinism Poppers Darwinism as a Metaphysical Programme Revisited | 292 |
The Two Faces of Fitness | 309 |
Identity Politics and Biology | 467 |
The Agroecosystem The Modern Vision in Crisis the Alternative Evolving | 480 |
Political Economy of Agricultural Genetics | 510 |
The Butterfly ex Machina | 529 |
Evoking Transmutational Dread Military and Civilian Uses of Nuclear and Genetic Alchemies | 544 |
What Causes Cancer? A Political History of Recent Debates | 568 |
Publications of R C Lewontin | 583 |
Index | 593 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adaptation agricultural alleles analysis argued argument Behavior Genetics biologists Cambridge cancer caste system causal causes characters chromosome claim cognitive complex concept context Darwinism Dawkins developmental differential discussion diversity Dobzhansky Drosophila Drosophila melanogaster dynamics ecological effects entities environment environmental eugenics evolution evolutionary biology example experiments explanation extended phenotype factors fitness frequency frequency-dependent selection function geneticists genic genome genotype group selection heritability heterosis human hybrid important Indian individuals inheritance interaction interactors interest L'Héritier Lewontin loci measure mechanisms melanogaster Mendelian modularity molecular mutation natural selection norm of reaction nuclear offspring organism's organisms phenotype Philosophy physical plant pleiotropic political polymorphism Popper population genetics predictions problem produce properties question reductionism replicators reproductive result Richard Lewontin role scientific scientists Selfish Gene sexual social species structure Teissier theory tion trait units of selection University Press variables variation Woltereck York