Re: Macroevolution FAQ 2.1D

John Wilkins wrote:
> Macroevolution - its definition, philosophy and history
>

snipped a good FAQ

>
> The two reductive claims we will consider now are the methodological and the
> ontological.
>
> The methodological claim that macroevolution (Ma) reduces to microevolution
> (Mi) is a claim that the optimal solution for investigating evolution is to
> apply modelling and testing genetic techniques. And this has been very
> successful. However, it has not been an unqualified success - developmental
> biology is not easily reducible to genetics, nor is ecology. Cell division,
> specialisation and signalling explain development, and the relationship
> between genes and these processes is equivocal - that is, some genes play a
> role in many developmental processes, and many genes play a role in pretty
> well all processes. Moreover, there are many other things involved in
> development: epigenetic factors (para-genetic inheritance and environmental
> modulation of genetic effects), cytological inheritance (organelles, cell
> membranes, ribosomes and enzymes from parent cells, and parent organisms). So
> genes on their own are not enough to explain why evolution occurs along the
> pathways that it has. One reaction to methodological reductionism in biology
> has been to assert that genes are merely "bookkeeping" entities for
> evolutionary investigation (Gould 2002). The methodological reduction is not
> sufficient, even if genes turn out to be the only significant "players" in
> evolution.


I realize that the above is a difficult thing to write but after
reading it I am left with a vague impression that reductionists don't
accept e.g. that environment affects gene expression and that they
claim that genes are on their own enough to "explain why evolution
occurs along the pathways that it has". I don't think that was your
intention.

ErikW

snipped more.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Macroevolution FAQ 2.1D
    ... >> is a claim that the optimal solution for investigating evolution is to ... >> between genes and these processes is equivocal - that is, ... One reaction to methodological reductionism in biology ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: COMPARATIVE VERIFICATION OF A GENETIC AND AN EPIGENETIC MODEL
    ... no one came up with a case of a change in a gene or a regulatory ... sequence that led to an evolutionary change in metazoan morphology. ... accelerated rates of evolution and diversification in metazoans. ... Stress response can induce changes in expression of genes especially ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Epigenetic factors in evolution
    ... question is whether it has any importance in evolution. ... genes doubtless control synthesis of the ... mutations have not occurred in cavefish eye genes, ... cells in chicks (Mitsiadis, T.A. et al. 2003. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Genetic or Epigenetic: The Causal Basis of Evolutionary Change
    ... regulatory sequence that has led to anything but deleterious or at ... whining about 'epigenetics' like it was a panacea against reality. ... "Molecular origins of rapid and continuous MORPHOLOGICAL evolution", ... regulatory regions of a few key regulatory genes. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: COMPARATIVE VERIFICATION OF A GENETIC AND AN EPIGENETIC MODEL
    ... no one came up with a case of a change in a gene or a regulatory ... sequence that led to an evolutionary change in metazoan morphology. ... accelerated rates of evolution and diversification in metazoans. ... Stress response can induce changes in expression of genes especially ...
    (talk.origins)