Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-5lx2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T02:19:37.045Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Modern Synthesis: Its Scope and Limits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Elliott R. Sober
Elliott R. Sober*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Modern Synthesis, according to Gould (1980, p. 119), “has broken down on both its fundamental claims: extrapolationism (gradual allelic substitution for all evolutionary change) and nearly exclusive reliance on selection leading to adaptation.” In another place (1982b, p. 380), he writes that “the essence of Darwinism lies in the claim that natural selection is a creative force, and in the reductionist assertion that selection upon individual organisms is the locus of evolutionary change.” There is a trivial question of terminology here, and perhaps a less trivial question of historiography. Does Darwinism have an essence, and was the Modern Synthesis as monolithic as all that? Sewall Wright used to be routinely cited as one of the main synthesizers. Does it now turn out that his models of interdemic selection retroactively cast him into the outer darkness (on which see Orzack 1981 and Gould 1981)?

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. 314 - 321
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.)

Footnotes

1

I want to thank the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for providing financial support in the form of a Romnes Faculty Fellowship.

References

Ayala, F. (1983). “Beyond Darwinism? The Challenge of Macroevolution to the Synthetic Theory of Evolution.” In PSA 1982, Volume 2. Edited by Ayala, F.F.D. Asquith and Ayala, F.T. Nickles. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 275-291.Google Scholar
Crow, J.F. and Kimura, M. (1970). An Introduction to Population Genetics Theory. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Burgess Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype. Oxford: W.H. Freeman and Company.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N. and Gould, S.J. (1972). “Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism.” In Models in Paleobiology. Edited by Schopf, T.J.M. San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper Co. Pages 82-115.Google Scholar
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R. (1979). “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: Critique of the Adaptationist Programme.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B205: 581-598.Google Scholar
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R. (1980). “Is a New and General Theory of Evolution Emerging?” Paleobiology 6: 119-130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R. (1981). “But Not Wright Enough: Reply to Orzack.” Paleobiology 7: 131-134 .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R. (1982a). “The Meaning of Punctuated Equilibrium and its Role in Validating a Hierarchical Approach to Macroevolution.” In Perspectives on Evolution. Edited by Milkman, R.. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Press. Pages 83-104.Google Scholar
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R. (1982b). “Darwinism and the Expansion of Evolutionary Theory.” Science 216: 380-387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauffman, S. (1983). “Filling Some Epistemological Gaps: New Patterns of Inference in Evolutionary Theory.” In PSA 1982, Volume 2 . Edited by Asquith, P.D. and Nickles, T.. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 292-313.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R. and Dunn, R. (1960). “The Evolutionary Dynamics of a Polymorphism in the House Mouse.” Genetics 45: 705-722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orzack, S.H. (1981). “The Modern Synthesis is Partly Wright.” Paleobiology 7: 128-131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raup, D.H. and Gould, S.J. (1974). “Stochastic Simulation and Evolution of Morphology — Towards a Nomothetic Paleontology.” Systematic Zoology 23: 305-322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raup, D.H. and Gould, S.J. (1978). “Cohort Analysis of Generic Survivorship.” Paleobiology 4: 1-15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sober, E. (1981). “Holism, Individualism, and the Units of Selection.” In PSA 1980. Volume 2. Edited by Asquith, P.D. and Giere, R.N.. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 93-121.Google Scholar
Sober, E. and Lewontin, R.C. (1982). “Artifact, Cause, and Genie Selection.” Philosophy of Science 49: 157-180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, S.M. (1979). Macroevolution: Pattern and Process. San Francisco, California: W.H. Freeman, Co.Google Scholar
Vrba, E.S. (1980). “Evolution, Species, and Fossils: How Does Life Evolve?” South African Journal of Science 76: 61-84.Google Scholar
Williams, G.C. (1966). Adaptation and Natural Selection. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar