The Major Metaphors of Evolution: Darwinism Then and Now

by Salvatore J. Agosta, Daniel R. Brooks

Overview

This book presents a unified evolutionary framework based on three sets of metaphors that will help to consolidate discussions on evolutionary transitions.

Evolution is the unifying principle of life, making identifying ways to apply evolutionary principles to tackle existence-threatening crises such as climate change crucial. A more cohesive evolutionary framework will further the discussions in this regard and also accelerate the process itself.

This book lays out a framework based on three dualistic classes of metaphors – time, space, and conflict resolution. Evolutionary transitions theory shows how metaphors can help us understand selective diversification, as Darwin described with his “tree of life”. Moreover, the recently proposed Stockholm paradigm demonstrates how metaphors can help shed light on the emergence of complex ecosystems that Darwin highlighted with his “tangled bank” metaphor. Taken together, these ideas offer proactive measures for coping with existential crises for humanity, such as climate change.

The book will appeal to biologists, philosophers and historians alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030520861
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	08/29/2020
Series:	Evolutionary Biology - New Perspectives on Its Development , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Sal Agosta is an Associate Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University. He received a PhD in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007, after which he was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto followed by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship from Wilkes University. Sal is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist whose work ranges from field and laboratory studies of animal-plant interactions in both temperate and tropical habitats to theoretical studies of foundational concepts in ecology and evolution. His current research focuses on the physiological ecology of plant-feeding insects, particularly in the context of biological invasions and climate change.

Daniel R Brooks is Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science) and Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Stockholm University and the University of Nebraska. He has been a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Collegium Budapest, Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study,Institute of Advanced Studies, Köszeg, and the Hungarian National Institute of Ecology. Dan is an evolutionary biologist whose more than 375 scientific publications, including half a dozen books, ranges from field studies of the evolution of host-pathogen systems in tropical wildlands to foundational studies of evolutionary theory. His current focus is integrating evolutionary principles into developing proactive public policy for coping with global climate change, with an emphasis on the emerging disease crisis.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Context
Chapter 2. A Talking BookAbstract2.1. We are a Fearful Species2.1.1. The Complexity Paradox2.2. We are a Story-telling Species2.2.1. A Story within a Story2.3. We are a Dreaming Species2.4. SummaryReferences
Chapter 3. Setting the StageAbstract3.1. 1859: The Origin Appears3.1.1. The Nature of the Organism3.1.2. The Nature of the Organism and Darwin's Necessary Misfit3.1.3. Natural Selection Emerges from Darwin’s Necessary Misfit and the Natureof the Conditions3.1.4. What Happens if the Conditions Change?3.1.5. Natural Selection as a Blunt Instrument: Survival of the Adequate orSurvival of the Fittest Collective3.2. Darwinian Evolution: The Law of the Conditions of Existence3.3. Two Powerful Visual Metaphors3.3.1. The Tree of Life3.3.2. The Entangled Bank3.4. What was Wrong with Darwinism?3.4.1. Naturalism3.4.2. Modernism3.4.3. Romanticism3.5. Organized Resistance3.5.1. The Geographers3.5.2. The Orthogeneticists3.5.3. The Neo-Lamarckians3.5.4. The Neo-Darwinians and the Rise of "Survival of the Fittest"3.6 SummaryReferences
Chapter 4. Neo-Darwinism, Expansion and Consolidation (1900-1980)4.1. Low Hanging Fruit: The Geographers4.1.1. Speciation by Reinforcement4.1.2. Peripatric Speciation plus Reinforcement4.1.3. Changing the Nature of Species4.1.4. Yes, but4.2. The Big Enchilada: Pan-adaptationism4.2.1. Mathematics4.2.2. Yes, but4.3. Co-opting Orthogenetic Adaptationism4.4. Act 2: The Hardened Synthesis (1959-1980)4.4.1. Absorbing the Final Holdout: Co-opting Coevolution4.5. Reinforcing the Cornerstones4.5.1. Speciation4.5.2. Species4.5.3. Adaptationism and the Hardened Synthesis4.6. The Hardened Synthesis and Ecology: The Rise of Evolutionary Ecology4.6.1. Geography as a Proxy for History4.6.2. Geography as a Means of Eliminating the Confounding Effects of History4.7. The Hardened Synthesis and Ethology: Behavioral Ecology Emerges4.8. Yeah, but4.8.1. Genetic Drift and Shifting Balance4.8.2. Epigenetic Landscapes4.9. SummaryReferences
Chapter 5. Criticism, Resistance, a Glimmer of HopeAbstract5.1. The Return of History5.1.1. The Phylogenetics Revolution5.1.2. Speciation5.1.3. Species5.1.4. The Orthogeneticists Return: Co-speciation5.1.5. Adaptationism Questioned5.1.6. The Return of History to Comparative Biology5.2. Evolution meets Complex Systems Analysis5.2.1. A Complex Systems View of the Nature of the Organism5.2.2. A Complex Systems View of Microevolution and Macroevolution5.2.3. Niches and Niche Construction5.3. Extending the Hardened Synthesis5.3.1. Renewed Interest in Galtonian Comparative Biology5.3.2. Evolutionary Ecology5.4. Why does the Hardened Synthesis Still Exist, and is even being Extended?5.5. Back to the Future5.5.1. Eldredge and Salthe (1984)5.5.2. Brooks and Wiley (1986, 1988)5.5.3. Maynard Smith and Szathmary (1995)5.6. SummaryReferences
Chapter 6. Buying TimeAbstract6.1. Becoming Alive: From Non-life to Life6.2. Staying Alive: The First Rule of Life6.3. Being Evolvable: The Second Rule of Life6.3.1. Slow Down and Live: It's the Fluxes (diS), not the Flows (deS)6.3.2. Keeping it Affordable6.3.3. Intimate Details of Inheritance Dynamics6.3.4. An Information View of Evolvable Life6.3.5. Temporal Dynamics of Biological Information6.4. SummaryReferences
Chapter 7. Making SpaceAbstract7.1. The Nature of the Organism: Capacity Space7.2. Evolvable Space-Time: An Integrated View of the Nature of the Organism7.3. The Nature of the Conditions: Opportunity Space7.3.1. Capacity meets Opportunity: Fitness Space7.4. Coping with Conflict7.4.1. The Means: Ecological Fitting7.4.2. The Opportunity: Ecological Fitting in Sloppy Fitness Space7.5. SummaryReferences
Chapter 8. Conflict ResolutionAbstract8.1. Compensatory Changes: Diversifying Your Portfolio8.2. Cohesion: Making Distinctions8.3. Visualizing Conflict Resolution8.4. The Meaning of Conflict: Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder8.4.1. Intention in Biological Signals: The Sender8.4.2. Meaning in Biological Signals: The Receiver8.5. Fitness Space: A Complex Mix of Signals and Messages8.6. The Nature of Selection8.7. SummaryReferences
Chapter 9. Evolutionary Transitions9.1. Phylogenetic Analysis as a Reflection of the Dynamics of Conflict Resolution9.2. An Initial Taxonomy of Transitions9.2.1. Maynard Smith and Szathmary: What is the Limiting Factor?9.2.2. Queller: How are the Participants Related?9.2.3. Brooks and McLennan: What is the Degree of Difficulty?9.3. Some Sagas9.3.1. Making a Living9.3.2. Origins of Herbivory9.3.3. The "Conquest of Land"9.3.4. Filling Niches or the Nature of the Organism?9.3.5. Transitions in Context9.4. SummaryReferences
Chapter 10. The Stockholm ParadigmAbstract10.1. Altered Geographical Fitness Space: Taxon Pulses10.2. Altered Functional Fitness Space: The Oscillation Hypothesis10.3. Integrating Spatial and Functional Oscillations: The Stockholm Paradigm10.4. Coping with Uncertainty10.5. SummaryReferences
Chapter 11. Putting Evolution to WorkAbstract11.1. Ecosystems: A Paradox11.1.1. Debunking the Butterfly Effect11.2. Us: A New View of "The Commons"11.2.1. The Myth of Control - Why Domestication is not the Answer11.2.2. The Laws of Biotics11.3. Changing from "Conservation and Restoration" to "Encouraging the Exploration ofEvolutionary Potential"11.3.1. What Lessons about Survival can we Learn by Studying what ishappening Today?11.3.2. Being Proactive about Emerging Infectious Disease11.3.3. A Specter Returns11.4. SummaryReferences