Modelling Evolution: A New Dynamic Account

by Eugene Earnshaw-Whyte

Overview

Evolution by natural selection explains the tree of life and the complex adaptations found throughout nature. The power and versatility of evolutionary explanations have proved tempting to scientists outside of biology, but adapting evolutionary concepts to new domains has been challenging. Even within biology, there are many difficult questions and problem cases that face evolutionary theory.

Modelling Evolution offers a new, general account of evolution by natural selection that identifies the essential features of evolutionary models that transcend any particular discipline. Evolution by natural selection in its broad sense is the systemic advantage of a type, in contrast to the narrow definition using heritable variation in fitness. This account is explained, contextualised and applied to a variety of questions in both biology and the social sciences.

Offering an accessible and comprehensive account of evolution that is applicable both to biology and the broader social sciences, Modelling Evolution will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as biology, economics, sociology, history, and psychology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138240131
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/26/2018
Series:	History and Philosophy of Biology
Pages:	145
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Eugene Earnshaw teaches History of Western Civilization, Sociology and Critical Thinking in the Liberal Arts program, Seneca College, Toronto, Canada

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Basic Evolutionary Concepts

Adaptation, fitness

And dandelions

Chance and basketball

Types and individuals

Selection

The original recipe

Systemic advantage of a type

Populations

Collections of individuals

Traits and types

Evolutionary Processes

In General

The Bias

Processes in Population Genetics

Selection as process

Selection v. Drift

Chance and Lightning

Discriminate v. Indiscriminate

Fixation in the population via drifty discriminate sampling

Expected and unexpected

Expecting the unexpected

Process vs. Outcome

The Evolutionary System

Bibliography

Chapter 2: The History of the Evolutionary Idea

Pausing for Context

Darwin

Variation and heredity

Selection

What evolves

Darwin’s Evolutionary Processes

Fisher

Evolution: Selection vs. Mutation

Fisher and fitness

Heredity, mutation, and genes

Adaptation and Heredity

Lewontin

The definition of evolution by natural selection

Segregation distortion and multilevel selection

Individual fitness and group fitness

Sober

Evolutionary forces

Fitness: Early Sober and Fisher compared

The Neodynamical account

Bibliography

Chapter 3: Evolutionary Forces

From Process to Force

The causal hierarchy

Functions of Time and Continuity

Causal variables vs. processes

Force Models

The three basic types of evolutionary force

Formalisms

Selection

Broad Selection

Heredity and Evolution by Natural Selection

Selection for traits and context dependence

Types of Drift

Bibliography

Chapter 4: Multilevel Selection

Individuality

The evolutionary transitions from individual to part

Fungi and biological individuals

Interactions

Kin Selection

Multilevel selection a la Lewontin

MLS 1, MLS 2, and contextual analysis

Contextual analysis and mus muscula

Three kinds of multilevel evolutionary models

More distinctions? Yes indeed

Multilevel Fitness models

Multilevel Force models

Multilevel Trait models

Bibliography

Chapter 5: Cultural Evolution

Challenges

The specter of biologism

The problem with replicators

Cultural Traits

Reproduction in Cultural Evolution

Processes

Boyd and Richerson

Looking at a model: farming practices

Lamarck and Technological Evolution

Novelty and guided variation (in evolutionary economics)

Application

This could be important

For example in sociology

Bibliography

Chapter 6: Multilevel Social Evolution

Concepts

Human groups and cultural individuals

Altruism in human societies

An extended illustration

Turchin on the historical evolution of egalitarianism

Critique

An alternative, multilevel approach

A model of multilevel cultural macroevolution

Developing the schema

Evaluating and adjusting

Specifying and Analysing

Bibliography