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2 - Mechanisms of evolutionary change

Lance Workman  and
Will Reader
Lance Workman
Affiliation:
Bath Spa University
Will Reader
Affiliation:
Sheffield Hallam University
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Summary

Key concepts natural selection, heritable variation, reproductive success, fitness, genes, chromosomes, Mendelian genetics, genotype, phenotype, mutation, DNA, heritability of characteristics, group selection, individual selection, gene selection, altruism, the selfish gene

Darwin's ideas have had a major impact on our understanding of the relationship between evolution and behaviour. In this and the next chapter we consider in more detail the foundations that he laid for evolutionary psychology and the contributions made by subsequent evolutionists. Since much of the work on the relationship between evolution and behaviour has been conducted on non-human species we consider a number of examples from the literature on animal behaviour. No understanding of evolution would be complete without considering genetics. What exactly a gene is and what it does are introduced.

Darwin's theory of evolution

Artificial selection

The Nobel laureate Herbert Simon once argued that a cow is a man-made object. What he meant was that domestic animals such as cows, chickens and dogs have been selectively bred for features that humans can make use of. In a similar way that humans have fashioned tools and other artefacts from natural materials, so they have fashioned living organisms to fulfil their needs.

Type
Chapter
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Evolutionary Psychology
An Introduction
 , pp. 29 - 57
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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References

Cronin, H. (1991). The Ant and the Peacock. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Explores the controversies surrounding Darwinian theory when applied to behaviour
Dawkins, R. (1976; 1989). The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press. A clearly argued account of the relationship between evolution and animal behaviour which also made an original contribution to evolutionary thinking by arguing that natural selection operates at the level of the gene
Dawkins, R. (1986). The Blind Watchmaker. Harlow: Longman. Argues persuasively that alternative explanations of complexity to natural selection do not stand up to scientific scrutiny
Dennett, D. C. (1995). Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life. New York: Simon and Schuster. A wide-ranging and ambitious attempt to present a number of debates in relation to the importance of Darwinism as an explanatory tool

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