Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-nvqbz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-07T03:03:19.597Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Complex individuals, complex populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Peter Godfrey-Smith
Peter Godfrey-Smith
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Get access

Summary

Another kind of complexity

In Chapters 7 and 8 we looked at the situation of an individual faced with a complex environment, and described some conditions under which it is best for the individual to meet this environmental complexity with a complex organic response. This is not the only type of organic system which can be complex or simple; another is the population. This chapter is about population-level responses to environmental complexity, and the relation between individual-level and population-level responses.

Complexity in the case of individuals was understood as heterogeneity. Complexity in populations will be understood the same way. A complex population is one which contains a diversity of types or forms. A simple population is homogeneous. The models of Chapters 7 and 8 examined a particular kind of individual-level complexity: the ability of an individual to do a variety of different things in different circumstances. In this chapter we will look at a particular case of population-level complexity: heterogeneity or “polymorphism” in the genetic make-up of the population. We will also investigate the relations between two different realizations of biological complexity, the relations between (i) simple populations of complex individuals, and (ii) complex populations of simple individuals.

The first part of this chapter is only indirectly relevant to the environmental complexity thesis. The aim is an understanding of a pattern of externalist explanation of complexity in biology, and certain work on genetic polymorphism will be discussed as a case study.

Type
Chapter
Information
Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature , pp. 255 - 290
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×