Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection - Hardcover

Depew, David J.; Weber, Bruce H.

4.18

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780262041454: Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262041456 ISBN 13: 9780262041454

Publisher: Bradford Books, 1994

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An examination of the Darwinian tradition in evolutionary biology, arguing that recent advances in modeling the nonlinear dynamics of complex systems may catalyze the next major phase of Darwinian evolutionism. Drawing on recent scholarship in the history of biology, the authors bring the dynamical perspective to bear on a number of important episodes in the history of the Darwinian research tradition: Darwin's "Newtonian" Darwinism, the rise of "developmentalist" evolutionary theories and the eclipse of Darwinism at the turn of the century, Darwinism's struggles to incorporate genetics, its eventual regeneration in the modern evolutionary synthesis, challenges posed to that synthesis by molecular genetics, and recent proposals for meeting those challenges. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

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About the Author:

David J. Depew is Professor of Communication Studies and Rhetoric of Inquiry at the University of Iowa.

Review:

This is an important book. It places the recent attempts to apply systems dynamics to evolutionary biology into a new context, and provides an important perspective on the history of Darwinism, on the current turmoil in evolutionary biology, and on the directions in which one might look for a reconciliation between theories of complex systems and (new) Darwinian biology that emerges from Depew and Weber's analysis provides a structure that illuminates evolutionary biology for a wider scholarly audience even as it raises important historical and conceptual issues about the character of Darwinian biology and of Darwinism in its many guises.

(Richard M. Burian, Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)

This book is full of sparkling pivotal insights, most deriving from seeing the physical and biological sciences as conceptual allies, rather than partners in an unequal vassalage. This book is also unual in its breathtaking scope, simultaneously bringing us first rate work of philosophy, history, and science. It is a clear narrative of the evolution of evolutionary theory through its trajectory of cultural and scientific environments, emerging from the history to the present adn near future on as well developed and believable trajectory.

(William C. Wimsatt, Professor of Philosophy, Evolutionary Biology, and Conceptual Fondations of Science, The University of Chicago)

In this fine book, Depew and Weber trace Darwin's conception of evolution in Newronian terms, its transformation this centruy to the statistical views of the 'Syntheis,' and the possible renewal of the core Darwinian paradigm in the emerging sciences of complexity. This is a deeply thoughtful and cogent work. It merits very serious attention.

(Staurt A. Kauffman, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics University of Pennsylvania and the Santa Fe Institute)

David Depew and Bruce Weber have produced a challenging and strong-minded history of evolutionary thought – a history they see leading ineluctably to the incorporation of recent contributions to complex systems dynamics into an expanded evolutionary theory. Their clear prose provides an accurate guide to the evolutionary debates sure to prove stimulating and informative to anyone with an interest in the evolutionary process.

(Niles Eldredge, Curator, Department of Invertebrates, American Museum of Natural History)

This volume by Depew and Weber constitutes an academic contribution of the first rank. What the authors uncover about the past and propose for the future is revolutionary, indeed! They do not pretend to have made a watertight case for extending the Darwinian paradigm, but they certainly lay before the reader a delightful narrative of the possibilities.

(Robert Ulanowicz, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory of the University of Maryland)

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