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Development, Evolution, and Adaptation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Kim Sterelny*
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
*
Send requests for reprints to the author, Philosophy, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand; e-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

In this paper I develop three conceptions of the relationship between evolutionary and developmental biology. I further argue that: (a) the choice between them largely turns on as yet unresolved empirical considerations; (b) none of these conceptions demand a fundamental conceptual reevaluation of evolutionary biology; and (c) while developmental systems theorists have constructed an important and innovative alternative to the standard view of the genotype/phenotype relations, in considering the general issue of the relationship between evolutionary and developmental biology, we can remain neutral on this debate.

Type
Philosophy of Biology, Psychology, and Neuroscience
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

Thanks to Peter Godfrey-Smith for organizing the symposium that was the occasion of this paper and to the other participants and the audience for their helpful responses to it. Thanks also to Russell Gray and Paul Griffiths for their comments on an earlier version.

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