Evolution & Learning – The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered (Life & Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology & Psychology) - Hardcover

Weber, Bruce H

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262232294 ISBN 13: 9780262232296

Publisher: MIT Press, 2003

Synopsis

The role of genetic inheritance dominates current evolutionary theory. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, several evolutionary theorists independently speculated that learned behaviors could also affect the direction and rate of evolutionary change. This notion was called the Baldwin effect, after the psychologist James Mark Baldwin. Philosophers and theorists of a variety of ontological and epistemological backgrounds have begun to employ the Baldwin effect in their accounts of the evolutionary emergence of mind and of how mind, through behavior, might affect evolution. The essays in this book discuss the originally proposed Baldwin effect, how it was modified over time, and its possible contribution to contemporary empirical and theoretical evolutionary studies. The topics include the effect of the modern evolutionary synthesis on the notion of the Baldwin effect, the nature and role of niche construction in contemporary evolutionary theory, the Baldwin effect in the context of developmental systems theory, the possible role of the Baldwin effect in computational cognitive science bio-semiotics, and the emergence of consciousness and language.

About this title

Review

"Evolution and Learning is a readable and challenging volume, and I would recommend it strongly to people who enjoy thinking hard about evolution." - Kevin N. Laland, Nature"

About the Author

Bruce H. Weber is the Robert Woodworth Professor of Science and Natural Philosophy at Bennington College and Professor of Biochemistry at California State University at Fullerton. David J. Depew is Professor of Communication Studies and Rhetoric of Inquiry at the University of Iowa.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0262232294
• ISBN 13: 9780262232296
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352