Conceptual Barriers to Progress Within Evolutionary Biology |
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| Authors: | Kevin N Laland John Odling-Smee Marcus W Feldman Jeremy Kendal |
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| Institution: | (1) School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, Bute Building, Queens Terrace, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9TS, UK;(2) Mansfield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3TF, UK;(3) Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Herrin Hall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA;(4) Department of Anthropology, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3HN, UK |
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| Abstract: | In spite of its success, Neo-Darwinism is faced with major conceptual barriers to further progress, deriving directly from
its metaphysical foundations. Most importantly, neo-Darwinism fails to recognize a fundamental cause of evolutionary change,
“niche construction”. This failure restricts the generality of evolutionary theory, and introduces inaccuracies. It also hinders
the integration of evolutionary biology with neighbouring disciplines, including ecosystem ecology, developmental biology,
and the human sciences. Ecology is forced to become a divided discipline, developmental biology is stubbornly difficult to
reconcile with evolutionary theory, and the majority of biologists and social scientists are still unhappy with evolutionary
accounts of human behaviour. The incorporation of niche construction as both a cause and a product of evolution removes these
disciplinary boundaries while greatly generalizing the explanatory power of evolutionary theory.
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| Keywords: | Niche construction Evolutionary biology Ecological inheritance Ecosystem ecology Developmental biology |
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