Lecture 2 - Organic Origins Debate
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Transcript Lecture 2 - Organic Origins Debate
Evolution:
An Idea in Three Parts
Part one:
The Organic Origins Debate
and the “Darwin Wars”
Defining the Period
Simplification of the Victorian era:
Prudish
Sexist
Racist
Science vs. Revealed & Natural religion
Defining the Problem
Extinction
Catastrophism vs. Uniformatism:
Earth was created by a series of rapid,
catastrophic events
Earth was created through slow,
naturally occurring processes
Introduction of new species in foreign
environments
The Argument from Design (1)
Many things in this world do not appear to
be accidents, but seem “designed”
A discovered watch demonstrates
design
To be designed, there must be a Designer
The Argument from Design (2)
David Hume:
Scathing critique of the argument from
design by extending the argument to its
logical conclusions
Infinite regress of intelligent designers,
intelligence as a “superior” function
Nonetheless, design still prevailed...
The Evolutionists
Erasmus Darwin
Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
Jean Baptiste de Lamarck
Robert Chambers
Charles Lyell (?)
Joseph Dalton Hooker
The Critics
Georges Cuvier
John F. W. Herschel
William Whewell
Rev. Adam Sedgwick
Hugh Miller
St. George Jackson Mivart
Charles Robert Darwin
Well-off
Not originally a good student
Specialised in Geology
Researched in the Galápagos
Alfred Russell Wallace
Humble beginnings
Amateur collector of specimens
Lost virtually all of his collection in a fire
He may have been an evolutionist because
he was not an academic
Richard Owen
Comparative anatomist
Darwin & Huxley were originally indebted
to him
Developed a theory of Archetypes and
introduced the term Homology to biology
Thomas Henry Huxley
Modest family background, supported by
scholarship in medical school
“Darwin’s Bulldog,” vicious critic of others
Persuaded by evolutionary thinking
Destroyed Owen’s Archetypal theory
Social Darwinism & Eugenics
Inspired by the works of Spencer & Galton
Committed several logical errors:
Naturalistic fallacy
Genetic determinism
Progression
Led to sterilizations, discrimination
Fast-Forward: Sociobiology (1)
In the 1960s and 1970s
Attempted to apply selectionist thinking to
animal behaviour
E.O. Wilson and Sociobiology: The New
Synthesis, final chapter on humans
Fast-Forward: Sociobiology (2)
Vitriolic reaction
Criticisms of sociobiological analyses:
genetic determinism
racism
sexism
The question remains whether these
criticisms actually hold up to scrutiny
Part two:
Evolutionary Theory
Lamarckian Evolution (1)
Acquired characteristics & satisfaction of
needs
Saltationist
Scala Naturae:
Organisms move progressively up
evolutionary scale, with irregularities
Multiple concurrent phylogenetic lines
Lamarckian Evolution (2)
a
b
Ø
c
d
a’
b
c
a
a’
b
a
a’
Ø
Ø
Adapted from Ruse (1999)
a
Ø
Lamarckian Evolution (3)
Problems:
Poor mechanism for speciation
Lacking a model of inheritance
No evidence of spontaneous generation
No evidence of spontaneous speciation
Does not follow the fossil record
(though he never claimed it did)
Darwinian Evolution (1)
Influences:
Malthus and struggle for survival
Lyellian uniformitarianism
Animal breeding
Varieties & species of the Galápagos
Darwinian Evolution (2)
“Descent with modification”
Gradual adaptation to environment
Variation, inheritance, & differential
reproduction
Common descent
Darwinian Evolution (3)
a
b
c
d
a’
Adapted from Ruse (1999)
Ø
Darwinian Evolution (4)
Types of selection:
Natural
Sexual
Artificial
Pangenesis model of inheritance:
Gemmules
Blended
Acquired
Darwinian Evolution (5)
Problems:
Blended inheritance
Acquired characteristics
Geological time scale for selection (lack
of scientific knowledge of the time)
Mate choice and sexual selection (not
well accepted at the time)
Mendelian Genetics
Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, was the
discoverer of the basis of heredity
Ignored in Darwin’s time (and by Darwin
himself!)
Solved the problem of inheritance by
demonstrating that it was particulate in
nature, not “blended”
The Modern Synthesis
Until the 1930s, Lamarckianism was the
most commonly accepted theory
The foundations of the modern synthesis,
based on Darwin’s model, were laid by
several key biologists:
Ronald Fisher
Sewall Wright
J.B.S. Haldane
Fitness
The relative number of surviving offspring
More particularly:
the extent to which copies of an
individual’s genotype are present in
succeeding generations, relative to
other genotypes
Does not refer to physical well-being or
degree of adaptation to the environment
Adaptation (1)
An idiosyncrasy of structure, physiology, or
behaviour that aids an organism in its
environment
Environments are both physical (e.g.,
ecosystem) and biological (other
organisms)
Adaptation (2)
A slow process over many generations
Environmentally-specific
Adaptations may be out-of-date
Cumulative
Natural Selection
Differential rate of reproduction and
survival of different genotypes in a
population
Responsible for adaptation to environment
by selecting complete phenotypes
Selects & maintains adaptations
Types of Selection (1)
μø
Stabilising:
Always taking place
Eliminates extreme
individuals in a population
μn
Types of Selection (2)
Disruptive:
Increases extreme forms
in a population at the
expense of intermediate
ones
Responsible for “group”
differences (e.g., males
vs. females)
μø
μn
Types of Selection (3)
μø
Directional:
Increases one extreme
form at the expense of
other forms in the
population
Generally responsible for
speciation
μn
Types of Selection (4)
Frequency-dependent:
Acts on multiple phenotypes in a
population
Works by decreasing more common
types and increasing less common
types, due to intra-typical competition
This continues until an equilibrium of
sorts is reached
Types of Selection (5)*
Sexual Selection:
Darwin originally conceived of Sexual
Selection as a mechanism separate
from, but complementary to, NS:
Referred to selection through
competition for reproduction
However, since NS now encompasses
both survival and reproduction, SS is
now seen as a fifth type of NS
Sexual Selection
Definition:
Differential rate of reproduction of
different genotypes in a population in
the context of mating
Types of mating contexts:
Intersexual
Intrasexual
Part three:
The Philosophy of
Evolutionary Theory
Levels of Causation
Proximate causation:
“How?” questions
Explains how a mechanism works
Ultimate causation:
“Why?” questions
Explains why a mechanism exists and
what function it serves
Levels of Selection (1)
“Good of the species” thinking is outdated
Inclusive Fitness (Kin Selection) theory:
Fitness is based on the adaptiveness of
a gene in an organism and copies of
that gene in related organisms
Levels of Selection (2)
The Price Equation (equivalence principle):
Mathematical formulation for
evolutionary change
Allows one to solve complex
evolutionary problems using different
levels of selection
Arguments are now being made to utilise
multi-level selectionist thinking
The Calculus of Selection
Selection operates on the basis of costs &
r-K selection:
r = rapid and large production of
offspring, short lifespan
K = slow and small production of
offspring, long lifespan
Predicted by stability of environment
(.e.g, safety of offspring)
benefits
The Problem of Fitness
Spencer’s quote, “survival of the fittest,” is
misleading
Survival is important only insofar that it
helps to increase fitness
Fitness is measured only in reproductive
terms:
relative number of copies of a genotype
in succeeding populations
OGOD Hypothesis
“One Gene, One Disorder” thinking is also
outdated
Although the phenomenon of OGOD does
take place in certain circumstances, most
behaviour is multiply-caused
Evolution and Deism
Evolutionary theory does not discredit
belief in God, per se
It does, however, counter literal readings
of any major religious text
Science is a philosophical model that does
not subscribe to supernatural
circumstances in order to explain
phenomena
The Naturalistic Fallacy (1)
“It is demonstrated… that things cannot
be otherwise: for, since everything was
made for a purpose, everything is
necessarily for the best purpose. Note that
noses were made to wear spectacles; we
therefore have spectacles.”
-Dr. Pangloss, from Voltaire’s Candide
The Naturalistic Fallacy (2)
The confusion of an “is” statement with an
“ought” statement
Scientific descriptions of the natural world
cannot tell us what ought to be, only what
is
We, as a people, are responsible for
defining out morals and ethical practices,
regardless of our ancestral heritage
Progress & Foresight
Lamarck incorrectly envisioned evolution
as a ladder, with humans on top
Selection works on short-term
consequences
Selection has no foresight
As Darwin said, “It is absurd to talk of one
animal being higher than another”
(Species Notebook B)
Genetic Determinism
The idea that genes alone are necessary
and sufficient causes for all behaviour
A major criticism of evolutionary research
applied to humans:
Fueled the “nature-nurture” debate
However, very little modern-day
evolutionary research is genetically
deterministic
The Wrap-Up (1)
Part one: History
The problem of organic origins
The flaws of the Argument from Design
The evolutionists and their critics
Social Darwinism & Eugenics
The “Darwin Wars” and Sociobiology
The Wrap-Up (2)
Part two: Evolutionary theory
Lamarckian vs. Darwinian theory
Mendelian genetics and particulate
inheritance
The Modern Synthesis:
Adaptation
Fitness
Five types of Natural Selection
The Wrap-Up (3)
Part three: Philosophy of Evolution
Ultimate vs. Proximate causation
Levels of selection
Costs & benefits
Problems & fallacies:
Survival of the fittest, OGOD,
evolution vs. deism, progress &
foresight, genetic determinism
Things to Come
Human origins
Genetics:
Mathematics of inheritance
Structure and functioning of DNA
Sex chromosomes
Implications