Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-qxsvm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-05T22:08:28.471Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis Robust Enough to Withstand the Challenge of Recent Discoveries in Molecular Biology and Molecular Evolution?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

John R. Jungck
John R. Jungck*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Beloit College, Beloit, WI 53511
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

As a biologist who has been looking to philosophers of biology for fifteen years for help with epistemological problems, it was a surprise to me to be asked by Marjorie Grene and Richard Burian to prescribe some philosophical problems which have arisen in molecular biology developments such as those described by Alan Maxam. I thoroughly enjoyed the NEH Summer Institute on the “Philosophy of Biology” which they organized at Cornell and feel that they have raised many challenges to my own thinking in my field of molecular evolution and the origins of life. I believe that an analysis of Professor Ayala's, Kauffman's, and Maxam's papers is relevant to developments in molecular evolutionary theory. First, just as the punctuated equilibria versus phylogenetic gradualism debate in macroevolutionary theory has been seen by some as a challenge to Neo-Darwinism, notably not Professor Ayala, debates about neutralism versus selectionism has been viewed by others as a similar challenge.

Type
Part VI. Recent Developments in Biology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1982 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1982 , 1982 , pp. 322 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asquith, P.D. and Nickles, T. (eds.). (1983). PSA 1982. Volume 2 . East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association.Google Scholar
Ayala, Francisco J. (1983). “Beyond'Darwinism? The Challenge of Macroevolution to the Synthetic Theory of Evolution.” In Asquith and Nickles (1983). Pages 275-291.Google Scholar
Allen, T.F.H. and Starr, Thomas B. (1982). Hierarchy: Perspectives for Ecological Complexity. Chicago: The University of Chicago ‘ Press.Google Scholar
Brandon, Robert. (1982). “The Levels of Selection.” In PSA 1982, Volume 1. Edited by Asquith, P.D. and Nickles, T.. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 315-323.Google Scholar
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R.C. (1979). “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B205: 581-598.Google Scholar
Grantham, Richard. (1980). “Workings of the Genetic Code.” Trends in Biochemical Sciences 5: 327-331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, M.N.; Gabay, J.; Debarbouille, M. and Schwartz, M. (1982). “A Role for mRNA Secondary Structure in the Control of Translation Initiation.” Nature 295: 616-618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979). Gödel. Escher. Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Hull, David. (1974). Philosophy of Biological Science. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Hull, David. (1981). “Reduction and Genetics.” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 6: 125-143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jungck, John R. (1978). “The Genetic Code as a Periodic Table.” Journal of Molecular Evolution 11: 211-224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauffman, Stuart A. (1983). “Filling in Some Epistemological Gaps: New Patterns of Inference in Evolutionary Theory.” In Asquith, and Nickles, (1983). Pages 292-313.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R.C. (1970). “The Units of Selection.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1: 1-18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, Uwe R. and Fitch, Walter M. (1982). “Evolutionary Selection for Perfect Hairpin Structures in Viral DNAs.” Nature 298: 582-585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakashima, T.; Jungck, J.R.; Fox, S.W.; Lederer, E. and Das, B.C. (1977). “A Test for Randomness in Peptides Isolated from a Thermal Polyamino Acid.” International Journal of Quantum Chemistry: Quantum Biology Symposium 4: 65-72.Google Scholar
Salthe, Stanley N. (1982). “Original Life.” Nature 295: 452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treffers, H.P.; Spinelli, V. and Belser, N.O. (1954). “A Factor (or Hutator Gene) Influencing Mutation Rates in Eschericia coli.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 40: 1064-1071.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimsatt, W.C. (1981). “The Units of Selection and the Structure of the Multi-level Genome.” In PSA 1980, Volume 2. Edited by Asquith, P.D. and Giere, R.N.. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 122-183.Google Scholar