Adaptationism is a set of methods in the evolutionary sciences for distinguishing the products of adaptation biology adaptation from Trait biological trait s that arise through other processes. It is employed in fields such as ethology and evolutionary psychology that are concerned with identifying adaptations. George C. Williams George Williams Adaptation and Natural Selection was highly influential in its development, defining some of the heuristics, such as complex functional design, used to identify adaptations. Debate Adaptationism is sometimes characterized by critics as an unsubstantiated assumption that all or most traits are Optimization mathematics optimal adaptations. Critics most notably Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould contend that the adaptationists John Maynard Smith , W.D. Hamilton , Richard Dawkins , Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennett being frequent examples have over emphasized the power of natural selection to shape individual traits to an evolution ary optimum, and ignored the role of developmental constraints, and other factors to explain extant morphological and behavioural traits. Adaptationism could also be characterized as an approach to studying evolution of form and function that attempts to frame the existence and persistence of traits on the scenario that each of them arose independently due to how that trait improved the reproductive success of the organism s ancestors. Adaptationism is also a description of folk biology where non experts see that, in general, organisms have an amazing array of adaptations, then apply this principle too broadly and describe everything as adaptive. Criteria of calling something adaptive If and only if a trait fulfills the following criteria will evolutionary biologists in general declare the trait an adaptation ... S.H. coauthors & Sober, E.R., eds. authorlink title Adaptationism and Optimality edition publisher ... first E. chapter Six Sayings about Adaptationism title The Philosophy of Biology editor D. Hull ... more details
Megatrajectory is a theoretical concept in evolutionary biology that describes paradigmatic developmental stages major evolutionary milestones and potential directionality in the evolution of life . Posited by A. H. Knoll and R. K. Bambach in their 2000 collaboration, Directionality in the History of Life, Knoll and Bamback argue that, in consideration of the problem of progress in evolutionary history, a middle road that encompasses both contingent and convergent features of biological evolution may be attainable through the idea of the megatrajectory blockquote We believe that six broad megatrajectories capture the essence of vectoral change in the history of life. The megatrajectories for a logical sequence dictated by the necessity for complexity level N to exist before N 1 can evolve...In the view offered here, each megatrajectory adds new and qualitatively distinct dimensions to the way life utilizes ecospace. ref name Knoll cite journal author A.H. Knoll, R.K. Bambach year 2000 title Directionality in the history of life diffusion from the left wall or repeated scaling of the right journal Paleobiology volume 26 issue 4 pages 1 14 doi 10.1666 0094 8373 2000 26 1 DITHOL 2.0.CO 2 issn 0094 8373 ref blockquote According to Knoll and Bambach, the six megatrajectories outlined by biological evolution thus far are the origin of life to the Last Common Ancestor prokaryote diversification unicellular eukaryote diversification multicellular multicellular organisms land organisms appearance of intelligence trait intelligence and technology Milan irkovi and Robert Bradbury, ref cite journal author M.M. Cirkovic, R.J. Bradbury year 2006 title Galactic Gradients, Postbiological Evolution and the Apparent failure of SETI doi 10.1016 j.newast.2006.04.003 journal New Astronomy journal New Astronomy volume 11 issue 8 pages 628 639 arxiv astro ph 0506110 ref ref cite journal author M. M.Cirkovic, I. Dragicevic, and T. Beric Bjedov title Adaptationism Fails To Resolve Fermi s ... more details
Essay date June 2009 Refimprove date July 2007 Image Chlorophyll a 3D vdW.png thumb Space filling model of the chlorophyll molecule, which is involved in photosynthesis. A function is the reason some object or process occurred in a system that evolved through a process of selection or Natural selection . Thus, function refers forward from the object or process, along some chain of causation , to the goal or success. ref Dusenbery, David B. 1992 . Sensory Ecology , pp.7 8. W.H. Freeman., New York. ISBN 0 7167 2333 6. ref Compare this to the mechanism biology mechanism of the object or process, which looks backward along some chain of causation, explaining how the feature occurred. A functional characteristic is known as an adaptation , and the research strategy for investigating whether a character is adaptive is known as adaptationism . Although an assumption that a character biology character is functional may be fruitful as a research method, some characteristics of organisms are non functional, and may simply be emergent phenomena arising as a side effect of functional systems see Spandrel biology . They may also have a reduced function or lost function entirely over time due to changing conditions, in which case they are said to be vestigial . The correlation of form also referred to as structure and function is one of the central themes in biology . However, knowing the structure of something does not necessarily reveal its function. To illustrate the point, an enzymologist discovering an unknown enzyme would be highly unlikely to identify its function with only protein structure structural information. It is also possible for different structures to carry out the same function. Teeth and the gizzard of a bird highlight this point both grind up food, serving the same function in terms of digestion . As another example, the function of chlorophyll in a plant is to capture the energy of sunlight for photosynthesis , which contributes to growth and reproduction, a ... more details
selected for being white or for matching their environment? Search me and search any kind of adaptationism ... suggests that that serious alternatives to adaptationism have begun to emerge , and offers evolutionary ... that argument, stating that far from suggesting an alternative to adaptationism, the very concept ... more details
Image HowtheMindWorks.gif thumbnail 150px Expand section date January 2011 How the Mind Works ISBN 0 393 31848 6 is a book by Canadian American cognitive science cognitive scientist Steven Pinker , published in 1997. The book attempts to explain some of the human mind s poorly understood functions and quirks in evolution ary terms. Drawing heavily on the paradigm of evolutionary psychology articulated by John Tooby and Leda Cosmides , Pinker covers subjects as diverse as Visual perception vision , emotion , feminism , and, in the final chapter, the meaning of life. He argues for both a computational theory of mind and a Neo Darwinism neo Darwinist Adaptationism adaptationist approach to evolution, all of which he sees as the central components of evolutionary psychology. He criticizes difference feminism in his book because he believes scientific research has shown that women and men differ little or not at all in their moral reasoning. ref Pinker, S. How the Mind Works Norton, 1997 p. 50 ref This book was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Reception Jerry Fodor , considered one of the fathers of the Computational Theory of the mind, criticized the book. Fodor wrote a book called The mind doesn t work that way , saying There is, in short, every reason to suppose that the Computational Theory is part of the truth about cognition. But it hadn t occurred to me that anyone could suppose that it s a very large part of the truth still less that it s within miles of being the whole story about how the mind works . He went further saying I was, and remain, perplexed by an attitude of ebullient optimism that s particularly characteristic of Pinker s book. As just remarked, I would have thought that the last forty or fifty years have demonstrated pretty clearly that there are aspects of higher mental processes into which the current armamentarium of computational models, theories and experimental techniques offers vanishingly little insight. And I would have thought that all of this ... more details
, the next chapter deals with adaptationism , which Dennett endorses, calling Stephen Jay Gould Gould ... quote doi 10.1098 rspb.1979.0086 pmid 42062 ref an illusion. Dennett thinks adaptationism is, in fact ... his self styled revolutions against adaptationism, gradualism and other orthodox Darwinism all being ... more details
Deleted image removed Image John Tooby.jpg right frame John Tooby John Tooby is an United States American anthropologist , who, together with psychologist wife Leda Cosmides , helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology . ref David Buss , in the textbook Evolutionary Psychology Allyn & Bacon, 1999 , pp. xxi xxii In the writing of this book I owe the greatest intellectual debt to Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Don Symons, Martin Daly, and Margo Wilson, pioneers and founders of the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. ref ref See also Geoffrey Miller, How to Keep Our Meta Theories Adaptive Beyond Cosmides, Tooby, and Lakatos Psychological Inquiry 11 1 2000 , p. 42 For a young science barely a decade old, evolutionary psychology has achieved a remarkably strong metatheoretical consensus. ... E volutionary psychology s metatheory was also shaped very strongly by a series of ambitious, persuasive, and visionary articles by Cosmides and Tooby in the late 1980s and early 1990s that showed how adaptationism could be applied to the human mind. The Cosmides Tooby vision of evolutionary psychology profoundly influenced the thinking of other leading researchers, such as David Buss Buss , Gerd Gigerenzer Gigerenzer , Steven Pinker Pinker , and Randy Thornhill Thornhill . It was also adopted as the conceptual framework in the most influential popular accounts of evolutionary psychology. ref Tooby received his Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Harvard University in 1989 and is currently Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara . In 1992, together with Leda Cosmides and Jerome Barkow , Tooby edited The Adapted Mind The Adapted Mind Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture . Tooby and Cosmides also co founded and co direct the UCSB Center for Evolutionary Psychology . Tooby is currently working on a book on the evolution of sexual reproduction and genetic systems. ref Last line of introductory paragraph on John Tooby s perso ... more details
other uses Structuralism Refimprove date September 2007 Expert subject Biology date November 2008 Essay like date December 2007 Biological or process structuralism is a school of biological thought that deals with the law like behaviour of the structure of organism s and how it can change. ref For an overview of biological structuralism see Brian Goodwin, Beyond the Darwinian Paradigm Understanding Biological Forms, in Evolution The First Four Billion Years , eds. Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis Harvard University Press, 2009 ref Structuralists tend to emphasise that organisms are holism wholes , and therefore that change in one part must necessarily take into account the inter connected nature of the entire organism. Whilst structuralists are not necessarily anti Darwinism Darwinian , the laws of biological structure are viewed as independent and ahistorical accounts that are not necessarily tied to any particular mechanism of change. A structuralist might thus hold that Darwinian natural selection might be the driving force behind how structures change, but nevertheless be committed to an extra layer of explanation of how particular structures come into being and are maintained. Typical structuralist concerns might be self organisation , the idea that complex structure emerges out of the dynamic interaction of molecule s, without the resultant structure having necessarily been selected for in all its details. For example, the patterning of fingerprint s or the stripes of zebra s might emerge through simple rules of diffusion , and the resulting unique structure need not have been selected for in its finest details. Structuralists look for very general rules that govern organisms as a whole, and not just particular narratives that explain the origin or maintenance of particular structures. The interplay between structural laws and adaptation thus govern the degree to which an adaptationism adaptationist account can fully explain why a particular organism looks as it ... more details
, Biology and Philosophy, 15, p. 403 423. Godfrey Smith, P., 2001, Three kinds of adaptationism , in Orzack, S. & Sober, E., eds., 2001, Adaptationism and Optimality, Cambridge, Cambridge University ... , in D. Hull and M. Ruse eds. , p. 1 21. Lewens, T., 2009, Seven kinds of adaptationism , Biology ... more details
The Adapted Mind Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture is an edited volume, first published in 1992 by Oxford University Press , edited by Jerome Barkow , Leda Cosmides and John Tooby . ref name BarkowEtal1992 It is widely considered the foundational text of evolutionary psychology EP , and outlines Cosmides & Tooby s integration of concepts from evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology , as well as many other concepts that would become important in adaptationism adaptationist research. Outline For all practical purposes the book can be divided in two parts. The first part pp. 1 159 lays out the theoretical foundations of evolutionary psychology. It consists of the introduction, written by Cosmides, Tooby and Barkow, an essay written by Tooby and Cosmides entitled The psychological foundations of culture , and an essay written by anthropologist Donald Symons entitled On the use and misuse of Darwinism in the study of human behavior . The second part pp. 160 637 is a collection of empirical research papers meant to introduce the reader to some topics of interest in evolutionary psychology, such as mating , social psychology social and developmental psychology , perceptual adaptations etc. It includes contributions from the best known evolutionary psychologists of the time such as Steven Pinker , David Buss , Martin Daly , Margo Wilson and others. Psychological foundations of culture By far the most important text in the volume is The Psychological Foundations of Culture , by Tooby and Cosmides. The first forty pages or so of this essay are devoted to an extensive critique of what the authors call the Standard social science model SSSM , short for Standard Social Science Model . The term refers to a metatheory that the authors claim has dominated the behavioral and social sciences throughout the twentieth century, blending radical environmentalism with blind empiricism. The SSSM has retained and reified the nature nurture dichotomy, and its practi ... more details
selection is only one . Dennett s views on evolution are identified as being strongly Adaptationism ... than Dawkins to defend adaptationism in print, devoting an entire chapter to a criticism of the ideas ... more details
Image Valignano.jpg thumb 200px Alessandro Valignano, circa 1600. Alessandro Valignano , Chinese F n L n February 1539 January 20, 1606 http www.gesuiti.it noviziato registro.html , was a Jesuit missionary born in Chieti , back then part of the Kingdom of Naples , who helped supervise the introduction of Catholicism to the Far East , and especially to Japan . Valignano joined the Society of Jesus in 1566, and was sent to the Far East in 1573. The nomination of a Neapolitan to supervise Portugal dominated Asia was at the time quite controversial, and his nationality, as well as his adaptationist and expansionist policies, led to many conflicts with mission personnel. Education and commission Valignano was born in Chieti , then part of the Kingdom of Naples . He excelled as a student at the University of Padua , where he studied Christian theology . Valignano s insights into Christian message convinced many within the Roman Catholic Church Church that he was the perfect individual to carry the spirit of the Counter Reformation to the Far East . He was ordained in the Society of Jesus and, at the age of 34, he was appointed Visitor of Missions in the Indies and had made his profession of the Monastic Vows Fourth Vow after only seven years in the Society. As Visitor, it was his responsibility to examine and whenever necessary reorganize mission structures and methods throughout India , China and Japan . He was given an enormous amount of leeway and discretion, especially for someone so young, and was answerable only to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus Jesuit Superior General in Rome . His commanding presence was only increased by his unusual height, enough to turn heads in Europe and to draw crowds in Japan. Valignano formed a basic strategy for Catholic proselytism, which is usually called adaptationism . He put the advance of Jesuits influence above adherence to traditional Christian behavior. He attempted to avoid cultural frictions by making a comp ... more details
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