Dickins, T.E. and Dickins, B.J.A. ORCID: 0000-0002-0866-6232, 2008. Mother nature's tolerant ways: why non-genetic inheritance has nothing to do with evolution. New Ideas in Psychology, 26 (1), pp. 41-54. ISSN 0732-118X
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Abstract
Recently a number of theorists have suggested that evolution can use non-genetic or environmental inheritance to pass on adaptations (e.g. Mameli, 2004). Furthermore, it has been suggested that nongenetic, or environmental factors, can play a central role in the process of evolution that is not captured by the neo-Darwinian view which places natural selection centre-stage (e.g. Odling-Smee, Laland & Feldman, 2003). In this paper we present and clarify neo-Darwinian theory and then take issue with the notions of contemporary gene-centred selection and inheritance that non-genetic inheritance theorists have used. We claim that they have misunderstood the distinction and relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic inheritance and we clarify this with a number of examples from the behavioural and biological sciences. According to this analysis there is no such thing as biologically independent nongenetic inheritance, all extrinsic inheritance is a consequence of traits and dispositions that are intrinsic to an organism and intrinsic design can only be explained through neo-Darwinism. We point to the implications this view has for current conceptions of cultural evolution.
Item Type: | Journal article | ||||
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Publication Title: | New Ideas in Psychology | ||||
Creators: | Dickins, T.E. and Dickins, B.J.A. | ||||
Publisher: | Pergamon Press | ||||
Date: | 2008 | ||||
Volume: | 26 | ||||
Number: | 1 | ||||
ISSN: | 0732-118X | ||||
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Divisions: | Schools > School of Science and Technology | ||||
Record created by: | EPrints Services | ||||
Date Added: | 09 Oct 2015 10:53 | ||||
Last Modified: | 09 Jun 2017 13:43 | ||||
URI: | https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/19556 |
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