Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T17:17:49.503Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Epigenetic and cultural evolution are non-Darwinian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2007

Liane Gabora
Liane Gabora
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada. liane.gabora@ubc.cahttp://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/liane
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The argument that heritable epigenetic change plays a distinct role in evolution would be strengthened through recognition that it is what bootstrapped the origin and early evolution of life, and that, like behavioral and symbolic change, it is non-Darwinian. The mathematics of natural selection, a population-level process, is limited to replication with negligible individual-level change that uses a self-assembly code.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , August 2007 , pp. 371
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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.)

References

Donald, M. (1991) Origins of the modern mind. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Donald, M. (1993) Précis of Origins of the modern mind (with commentary). Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16(4):737–91.Google Scholar
Gabora, L. (2003) Contextual focus: A cognitive explanation for the cultural transition of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic. Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Boston, MA, July 31–August 2, 2003, ed. Alterman, R. & Hirsch, D.. ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Gabora, L. (2004) Ideas are not replicators but minds are. Biology and Philosophy 19:127–43.Google Scholar
Gabora, L. (2006) Self-other organization: Why early life did not evolve through natural selection. Journal of Theoretical Biology 241(3):443–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jablonka, E. & Lamb, M. J. (2005) Evolution in four dimensions: Genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic variation in the history of life. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Leakey, R. (1984) The origins of humankind. Science Masters/Basic Books.Google Scholar
Vetsigian, K., Woese, C. & Goldenfeld, N. (2006) Collective evolution and the genetic code. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 103:10696–701.Google Scholar