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-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:53:38.321Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in the Philosophy of Biology

Structure and Function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2023

Rose Novick
Rose Novick
Affiliation:
University of Washington

Summary

The history of biology is mottled with disputes between two distinct approaches to the organic world: structuralism and functionalism. Their persistence across radical theory change makes them difficult to characterize: the characterization must be abstract enough to capture biologists with diverse theoretical commitments, yet not so abstract as to be vacuous. This Element develops a novel account of structuralism and functionalism in terms of explanatory strategies (Section 2). This reveals the possibility of integrating the two strategies; the explanatory successes of evolutionary-developmental biology essentially depend on such integration (Section 3). Neither explanatory strategy is universally subordinate to the other, though subordination with respect to particular explanatory tasks is possible (Section 4). Beyond structuralism and functionalism, philosophical analysis that centers explanatory strategies can illuminate conflicts within evolutionary theory more generally (Section 5).
Get access

Keywords

structuralismfunctionalismevolutionary-developmental biologyexplanatory strategiesevolution
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in the Philosophy of Biology
Online ISBN: 9781009028745
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 09 March 2023

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.)

References

Alberch, Pere. 1989. “The Logic of Monsters: Evidence for Internal Constraint in Development and Evolution.” Geobios, Ontogenèse Et Évolution 22 (January): 21–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-6995(89)80006-3.Google Scholar
Alberch, Pere, and Gale, Emily A.. 1985. “A Developmental Analysis of an Evolutionary Trend: Digital Reduction in Amphibians.” Evolution 39 (1): 8–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1985.tb04076.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Amundson, Ron. 1994. “Two Concepts of Constraint: Adaptationism and the Challenge from Developmental Biology.” Philosophy of Science 61 (4): 556–78. https://doi.org/10.1086/289822.Google Scholar
Amundson, Ron. 2005. The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo. Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139164856.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amundson, Ron. 2021. “Form and Function in Evo-Devo.” In Evolutionary Developmental Biology, edited by Laura Nuño de la Rosa and Gerd B. Müller, 457–67. Cham: Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32979-6_91.Google Scholar
Andersson, Jan O. 2005. “Lateral Gene Transfer in Eukaryotes.” Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 62 (11): 1182–97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-005-4539-z.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Appel, Toby A. 1987. The Cuvier-Geoffrey Debate: French Biology in the Decades before Darwin. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Arias, Del Angel, Juan, A., Nanjundiah, Vidyanand, Benítez, Mariana, and Newman, Stuart A.. 2020. “Interplay of Mesoscale Physics and Agent-Like Behaviors in the Parallel Evolution of Aggregative Multicellularity.” EvoDevo 11 (1): 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-020-00165-8.Google Scholar
Arthur, Wallace. 2000. The Origin of Animal Body Plans: A Study in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Arthur, Wallace. 2001. “Developmental Drive: An Important Determinant of the Direction of Phenotypic Evolution.” Evolution & Development 3 (4): 271–78. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-142x.2001.003004271.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arthur, Wallace. 2002a. “The Emerging Conceptual Framework of Evolutionary Developmental Biology.” Nature 415 (6873): 757–64. https://doi.org/10.1038/415757a.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arthur, Wallace. 2002b. “The Interaction between Developmental Bias and Natural Selection: From Centipede Segments to a General Hypothesis.” Heredity 89 (4): 239–46. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.hdy.6800139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arthur, Wallace. 2004. “The Effect of Development on the Direction of Evolution: Toward a Twenty-First Century Consensus.” Evolution & Development 6 (4): 282–88. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-142X.2004.04033.x.Google Scholar
Arthur, Wallace. 2015. “Internal Factors in Evolution: The Morphogenetic Tree, Developmental Bias, and Some Thoughts on the Conceptual Structure of Evo-Devo.” In Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives on Evolution and Development, edited by Love, Alan C., 343–63. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9412-1_16.Google Scholar
Arthur, Wallace. 2021. Understanding Evo-Devo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Asma, Stephen T. 1996. Following Form and Function: A Philosophical Archaeology of Life Science. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Austin, Christopher J. 2017. “Evo-Devo: A Science of Dispositions.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 7 (2): 373–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-016-0166-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, Paul H., Gautrey, Peter J., Herbert, Sandra, Kohn, David, and Smith, Sidney, eds. 2009. Charles Darwin’s Notebooks, 1836–1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beatty, John. 1995. “The Evolutionary Contingency Thesis.” In Concepts, Theories, and Rationality in the Biological Sciences, edited by Wolters, Gereon and Lennox, James G., 45–81. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Beatty, John. 2016. “The Creativity of Natural Selection? Part I: Darwin, Darwinism, and the Mutationists.” Journal of the History of Biology 49 (4): 659–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-016-9456-5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beatty, John. 2019. “The Creativity of Natural Selection? Part II: The Synthesis and Since.” Journal of the History of Biology 52: 705–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-019-09583-4.Google Scholar
Benítez, Mariana, Hernández-Hernández, Valeria, Newman, Stuart A., and Niklas, Karl J.. 2018. “Dynamical Patterning Modules, Biogeneric Materials, and the Evolution of Multicellular Plants.” Frontiers in Plant Science 9: 871, 1–16. www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2018.00871.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Booth, Austin, Mariscal, Carlos, and Doolittle, W. Ford. 2016. “The Modern Synthesis in the Light of Microbial Genomics.” Annual Review of Microbiology 70 (July): 279–97. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-micro-102215-095456.Google Scholar
Borkin, Leo J., and Pikulik, Mikhail M.. 1986. “The Occurrence of Polymely and Polydactyly in Natural Populations of Anurans of the USSR.” Amphibia-Reptilia 7 (3): 205–16. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853886X00019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boucher, Sandy C. 2014. “What is a Philosophical Stance? Paradigms, Policies and Perspectives.” Synthese 191 (10): 2315–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0400-y.Google Scholar
Boucher, Sandy C. 2015. “Functionalism and Structuralism as Philosophical Stances: Van Fraassen Meets the Philosophy of Biology.” Biology & Philosophy 30 (3): 383–403. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-014-9453-z.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boucher, Sandy C. 2019. “An Empiricist Conception of the Relation between Metaphysics and Science.” Philosophia 47 (5): 1355–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-018-0040-4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breuker, Casper J., Debat, Vincent, and Klingenberg, Christian Peter. 2006. “Functional Evo-Devo.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21 (9): 488–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2006.06.003.Google Scholar
Brigandt, Ingo. 2021. “Typology and Natural Kinds in Evo-Devo.” In Evolutionary Developmental Biology: A Reference Guide, edited by de la Rosa, Laura Nuño and Müller, Gerd B., 483–93. Cham: Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32979-6_100.Google Scholar
Brigandt, Ingo, and Love, Alan C.. 2010. “Evolutionary Novelty and the Evo-Devo Synthesis: Field Notes.” Evolutionary Biology 37 (2): 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-010-9083-6.Google Scholar
Brigandt, Ingo, and Love, Alan C.. 2012. “Conceptualizing Evolutionary Novelty: Moving Beyond Definitional Debates.” Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 318 (6): 417–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.b.22461.Google Scholar
Brown, Rachael L. In Press. “Structuralism and Adaptationism: Friends? Or Foes?” Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2022.02.022.Google Scholar
Brunet, Tyler D. P. 2022. “Higher Level Constructive Neutral Evolution.” Biology & Philosophy 37 (4): 23, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09858-x.Google Scholar
Brunet, T. D. P., and Doolittle, W. Ford. 2018. “The Generality of Constructive Neutral Evolution.” Biology & Philosophy 33 (1): 2, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-018-9614-6.Google Scholar
Buskell, Andrew. 2019. “Reciprocal Causation and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.” Biological Theory 14: 267–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-019-00325-7.Google Scholar
Buskell, Andrew. 2020. “Synthesising Arguments and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 80: 101244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2019.101244.Google Scholar
Camardi, Giovanni. 2001. “Richard Owen, Morphology and Evolution.” Journal of the History of Biology 34 (3): 481–515. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012946930695.Google Scholar
Carroll, Sean B. 2005. “Evolution at Two Levels: On Genes and Form.” PLOS Biology 3 (7): e245. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030245.Google Scholar
Carroll, Sean B. 2008. “Evo-Devo and an Expanding Evolutionary Synthesis: A Genetic Theory of Morphological Evolution.” Cell 134 (1): 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2008.06.030.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chung, Carl. 2003. “On the Origin of the Typological/Population Distinction in Ernst Mayr’s Changing Views of Species, 1942–1959.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 34 (2): 277–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1369-8486(03)00026-8.Google Scholar
Coleman, William. 1964. Georges Cuvier, Zoologist: A Study in the History of Evolution Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, William. 1977 (1971). Biology in the Nineteenth Century: Problems of Form, Function, and Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coyne, Jerry A. 2006. “Comment on ‘Gene Regulatory Networks and the Evolution of Animal Body Plans.’” Science 313 (5788): 761. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1126454.Google Scholar
Craig, Lindsay R. 2009. “Defending Evo‐Devo: A Response to Hoekstra and Coyne.” Philosophy of Science 76 (3): 335–44. https://doi.org/10.1086/649808.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles. 1964 (1859). On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition. Facsimile ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, Eric H., and Erwin, Douglas H.. 2006. “Gene Regulatory Networks and the Evolution of Animal Body Plans.” Science 311 (5762): 796–800. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1113832.Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard. 1986. The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
de Robertis, Edward M. 2008. “The Molecular Ancestry of Segmentation Mechanisms.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (43): 16411–12. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0808774105.Google Scholar
Dietrich, Michael R. 2006. “Three Perspectives on Neutrality and Drift in Molecular Evolution.” Philosophy of Science 73 (5): 666–77. https://doi.org/10.1086/518521.Google Scholar
DiFrisco, James, Love, Alan C., and Wagner, Günter P.. 2020. “Character Identity Mechanisms: A Conceptual Model for Comparative-Mechanistic Biology.” Biology & Philosophy 35 (4): 44, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-020-09762-2.Google Scholar
DiFrisco, James, Wagner, Günter P., and Love, Alan C.. In Press. “Reframing Research on Evolutionary Novelty and Co-Option: Character Identity Mechanisms versus Deep Homology.” Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2022.03.030.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobzhansky, Theodosius. 1982 (1937). Genetics and the Origin of Species. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Doolittle, W. Ford. 2012. “A Ratchet for Protein Complexity.” Nature 481 (7381): 270–71. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10816.Google Scholar
Duboule, Denis. 2007. “The Rise and Fall of Hox Gene Clusters.” Development 134 (14): 2549–60. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.001065.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 1983 (1844). “Nature (1844).” In Essays and Lectures, edited by Porte, Joel, 539–55. New York: Library of America.Google Scholar
Endler, John A. 1986. Natural Selection in the Wild. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Erwin, Douglas H. 2020. “The Origin of Animal Body Plans: A View from Fossil Evidence and the Regulatory Genome.” Development 147 (4): dev182899, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.182899.Google Scholar
Erwin, Douglas H., and Valentine, James. 2013. The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity. 1st ed. Greenwood Village: Roberts.Google Scholar
Fábregas-Tejeda, Alejandro, and Vergara-Silva, Francisco. 2018. “Hierarchy Theory of Evolution and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Some Epistemic Bridges, Some Conceptual Rifts.” Evolutionary Biology 45 (2): 127–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-017-9438-3.Google Scholar
Fusco, Giuseppe. 2015. “For a New Dialogue between Theoretical and Empirical Studies in Evo-Devo.” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 3: 97, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2015.00097.Google Scholar
Garson, Justin. 2017. “A Generalized Selected Effects Theory of Function.” Philosophy of Science 84 (3): 523–43. https://doi.org/10.1086/692146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Scott F. 2016. “Developmental Plasticity and Developmental Symbiosis: The Return of Eco-Devo.” In Current Topics in Developmental Biology, edited by Wassarman, Paul M., 116: 415–33. Essays on Developmental Biology, Part A. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.ctdb.2015.12.006.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. 2001. “Three Kinds of Adaptationism.” In Adaptationism and Optimality, edited by Orzack, Steven Hecht and Sober, Elliott, 335–57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. 2009. Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, Richard. 1982 (1940). The Material Basis of Evolution. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen J. 1980. “Is a New and General Theory of Evolution Emerging?” Paleobiology 6 (1): 119–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0094837300012549.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen J., and Lewontin, Richard C.. 1979. “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 205 (1161): 581–98. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1979.0086.Google Scholar
Gray, Michael W., Lukeš, Julius, Archibald, John M., Keeling, Patrick J., and Doolittle, W. Ford. 2010. “Irremediable Complexity?” Science 330 (6006): 920–21. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1198594.Google Scholar
Greer, Joy M., Puetz, John, Thomas, Kirk R., and Capecchi, Mario R.. 2000. “Maintenance of Functional Equivalence during Paralogous Hox Gene Evolution.” Nature 403 (6770): 661–65. https://doi.org/10.1038/35001077.Google Scholar
Gross, Fridolin, Kranke, Nina, and Meunier, Robert. 2019. “Pluralization through Epistemic Competition: Scientific Change in Times of Data-Intensive Biology.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 41 (1): 1, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-018-0239-5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guzmán-Herrera, Alejandra, Juan, A. Arias Del Angel, Natsuko Rivera-Yoshida, Mariana Benítez, and Alessio Franci. 2021. “Dynamical Patterning Modules and Network Motifs as Joint Determinants of Development: Lessons from an Aggregative Bacterium.” Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 336 (3): 300–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.b.22946.Google Scholar
Hall, Brian K. 2000. “Guest Editorial: Evo-Devo or Devo-Evo – Does It Matter?” Evolution & Development 2 (4): 177–78. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-142x.2000.00003e.x.Google Scholar
Hernández-Hernández, Valeria, Niklas, Karl J., Newman, Stuart A., and Mariana, Benítez. 2012. “Dynamical Patterning Modules in Plant Development and Evolution.” International Journal of Developmental Biology 56 (9): 661–74. https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.120027mb.Google Scholar
Ho, Mae-Wan, and Saunders, Peter T.. 1993. “Rational Taxonomy and the Natural System.” Acta Biotheoretica 41 (4): 289–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00709367.Google Scholar
Hoekstra, Hopi E., and Coyne, Jerry A.. 2007. “The Locus of Evolution: Evo Devo and the Genetics of Adaptation.” Evolution 61 (5): 995–1016. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00105.x.Google Scholar
Hughes, Anthony J., and Lambert, David M.. 1984. “Functionalism, Structuralism, and ‘Ways of Seeing.’” Journal of Theoretical Biology 111 (4): 787–800. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5193(84)80267-2.Google Scholar
Hull, David L. 1965a. “The Effect of Essentialism on Taxonomy: Two Thousand Years of Stasis (I).” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 15 (60): 314–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjps/XV.60.314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, David L. 1965b. “The Effect of Essentialism on Taxonomy: Two Thousand Years of Stasis (II).” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 16 (61): 1–18.Google Scholar
Irwin, Terence, and Fine, Gail, trans. 1996. Aristotle: Introductory Readings. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Jenner, Ronald A. 2006. “Unburdening Evo-Devo: Ancestral Attractions, Model Organisms, and Basal Baloney.” Development Genes and Evolution 216 (7): 385–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-006-0084-5.Google Scholar
Joyce, James. 2012 (1939). Finnegans Wake. Revised ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1987 (1790). Critique of Judgment. Translated by Pluhar, Werner S.. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Kauffman, Stuart A. 1993. The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kimura, Motoo. 1983. The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511623486.Google Scholar
Laland, Kevin N., Uller, Tobias, Feldman, Marcus W. et al. 2015. “The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Its Structure, Assumptions and Predictions.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282 (1813): 20151019. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1019.Google Scholar
Lamarck, Jean de Monet de, Baptiste Pierre Antoine. 2011 (1809). Zoological Philosophy: An Exposition with Regard to the Natural History of Animals. Translated by Hugh Samuel Roger Elliott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139105323.Google Scholar
Laubichler, Manfred D. 2009. “Form and Function in Evo Devo: Historical and Conceptual Reflections.” In Form and Function in Developmental Evolution, edited by Maienschein, Jane and Laubichler, Manfred D., 10–46. Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511576188.002.Google Scholar
Lemons, Derek, and McGinnis, William. 2006. “Genomic Evolution of Hox Gene Clusters.” Science 313 (5795): 1918–22. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1132040.Google Scholar
Lennox, James G. 2021. “Form as Cause and the Formal Cause: Aristotle’s Answer.” In Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Formal Causation, edited by Jansen, Ludger and Sandstad, Petter, 225–37. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lewens, Tim. 2008. “Seven Types of Adaptationism.” Biology & Philosophy 24 (2): 161, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-008-9145-7.Google Scholar
Lewens, Tim. 2009. “Evo-Devo and ‘Typological Thinking’: An Exculpation.” Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 312B (8): 789–96. https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.b.21292.Google Scholar
Lewens, Tim. 2019. “The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: What is the Debate about, and What Might Success for the Extenders Look Like?” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 127 (4): 707–21. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blz064.Google Scholar
Lewontin, Richard C. 1983. “Gene, Organism, and Environment.” In Evolution from Molecules to Men, edited by Bendall, Derek S., 273–85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Linde-Medina, Marta. 2010. “Two ‘EvoDevos.’” Biological Theory 5 (1): 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1162/BIOT_a_00014.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 2015. “Adaptationism and the Logic of Research Questions: How to Think Clearly About Evolutionary Causes.” Biological Theory 10 (4): 343–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-015-0214-2.Google Scholar
Longabaugh, William J. R., Davidson, Eric H., and Bolouri, Hamid. 2005. “Computational Representation of Developmental Genetic Regulatory Networks.” Developmental Biology 283 (1): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2005.04.023.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Longabaugh, William J. R., Davidson, Eric H., and Bolouri, Hamid. 2009. “Visualization, Documentation, Analysis, and Communication of Large-Scale Gene Regulatory Networks.” Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Gene Regulatory Mechanisms, System Biology – Genetic Networks 1789 (4): 363–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagrm.2008.07.014.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Love, Alan C. 2013. “Theory is as Theory Does: Scientific Practice and Theory Structure in Biology.” Biological Theory 7 (4): 325–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0046-2.Google Scholar
Love, Alan C. forthcoming. Evolution and Development: Conceptual Issues. Elements in the Philosophy of Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lu, Qiaoying, and Bourrat, Pierrick. 2018. “The Evolutionary Gene and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 69 (3): 775–800. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjps/axw035.Google Scholar
Lukeš, Julius, Archibald, John M., Keeling, Patrick J., Ford Doolittle, W., and Gray, Michael W.. 2011. “How a Neutral Evolutionary Ratchet Can Build Cellular Complexity.” IUBMB Life 63 (7): 528–37. https://doi.org/10.1002/iub.489.Google Scholar
Mayr, Ernst. 1959. “Darwin and the Evolutionary Theory in Biology.” In Evolution and Anthropology: A Centennial Appraisal, edited by Meggers, Betty J., 1–10. Washington, DC: Anthropological Society of Washington.Google Scholar
Mayr, Ernst. 1960. “The Emergence of Evolutionary Novelties.” In Evolution after Darwin, Vol. 1, The Evolution of Life: Its Origin, History, and Future, edited by Tax, Sol, 349–80. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mayr, Ernst. 1969. “Footnotes on the Philosophy of Biology.” Philosophy of Science 36 (2): 197–202. https://doi.org/10.1086/288246.Google Scholar
Mayr, Ernst. 1982 (1942). Systematics and the Origin of Species: The Columbia Classics in Evolution Series. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Mayr, Ernst, and Provine, William B.. 1981. “The Evolutionary Synthesis.” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 34 (8): 17–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/3823367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConwell, Alison K. 2019. “Contingency’s Causality and Structural Diversity.” Biology & Philosophy 34 (2): 26, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-019-9679-x.Google Scholar
McShea, Daniel W. 1991. “Complexity and Evolution: What Everybody Knows.” Biology and Philosophy 6 (3): 303–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00132234.Google Scholar
Minchin, Edward A. 1898. “Materials for a Monograph of the Ascons: I. On the Origin and Growth of the Triradiate and Quadriradiate Spicules in the Family Clathrinidæ.” Journal of Cell Science s2-40 (160): 469–587.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Sandra D. 2009. Unsimple Truths. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7208/9780226532653/html.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Sandra D., and Gronenborn, Angela M.. 2017. “After Fifty Years, Why Are Protein X-Ray Crystallographers Still in Business?” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68 (3): 703–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjps/axv051.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Sandra D., and Dietrich, Michael R.. 2006. “Integration without Unification: An Argument for Pluralism in the Biological Sciences.” The American Naturalist 168 (S6): S73–79. https://doi.org/10.1086/509050.Google Scholar
Mossio, Matteo, Saborido, Cristian, and Moreno, Alvaro. 2009. “An Organizational Account of Biological Functions.” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (4): 813–41. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjps/axp036.Google Scholar
Müller, Gerd B. 2017. “Why an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is Necessary.” Interface Focus 7 (5): 20170015. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2017.0015.Google Scholar
Muñoz-Gómez, Sergio A., Bilolikar, Gaurav, Wideman, Jeremy G., and Geiler-Samerotte, Kerry. 2021. “Constructive Neutral Evolution 20 Years Later.” Journal of Molecular Evolution 89 (3): 172–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-021-09996-y.Google Scholar
Newman, Stuart A. 2016. “‘Biogeneric’ Developmental Processes: Drivers of Major Transitions in Animal Evolution.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 371 (1701): 20150443. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0443.Google Scholar
Newman, Stuart A. 2021. “The Origins and Evolution of Animal Identity.” In Biological Identity: Perspectives from Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Biology, edited by Meincke, Anne Sophie and Dupré, John, 128–48. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Newman, Stuart A. 2022. “Form, Function, Agency: Sources of Natural Purpose in Animal Evolution.” EcoEvoRxiv. https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/szv35.Google Scholar
Newman, Stuart A., and Bhat, Ramray. 2008. “Dynamical Patterning Modules: Physico-Genetic Determinants of Morphological Development and Evolution.” Physical Biology 5 (1): 015008. https://doi.org/10.1088/1478-3975/5/1/015008.Google Scholar
Newman, Stuart A., and Bhat, Ramray. 2009. “Dynamical Patterning Modules: A ‘Pattern Language’ for Development and Evolution of Multicellular Form.” International Journal of Developmental Biology 53 (5–6): 693–705. https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.072481sn.Google Scholar
Newman, Stuart A., and Bhat, Ramray. 2011. “Lamarck’s Dangerous Idea.” In Transformations of Lamarckism: From Subtle Fluids to Molecular Biology, edited by Gissis, Snait B. and Jablonka, Eva, 157–70. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Niklas, Karl J., and Newman, Stuart A.. 2013. “The Origins of Multicellular Organisms.” Evolution & Development 15 (1): 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/ede.12013.Google Scholar
Novick, Aaron. 2018. “The Fine Structure of ‘Homology.’” Biology & Philosophy 33 (1–2): 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-018-9617-3.Google Scholar
Novick, Aaron. 2019. “Cuvierian Functionalism.” Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 11: 20190821. https://doi.org/10.3998/ptpbio.16039257.0011.005.Google Scholar
Novick, Aaron, and Doolittle, W. Ford. 2019. “How Microbes ‘Jeopardize’ the Modern Synthesis.” PLOS Genetics 15 (5): e1008166. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008166.Google Scholar
Nunes, Maria D. S., Arif, Saad, Schlötterer, Christian, and McGregor, Alistair P.. 2013. “A Perspective on Micro-Evo-Devo: Progress and Potential.” Genetics 195 (3): 625–34. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.113.156463.Google Scholar
Odling-Smee, F. John, Laland, Kevin N., and Feldman, Marcus W.. 1996. “Niche Construction.” The American Naturalist 147 (4): 641–48. https://doi.org/10.1086/285870.Google Scholar
Ohta, Tomoko. 1992. “The Nearly Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 23: 263–86.Google Scholar
Okasha, Samir. 2006. Evolution and the Levels of Selection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ospovat, Dov. 1981. The Development of Darwin’s Theory: Natural History, Natural Theology, and Natural Selection, 1838–1859. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Outram, Dorinda. 1986. “Uncertain Legislator: Georges Cuvier’s Laws of Nature in Their Intellectual Context.” Journal of the History of Biology 19 (3): 323–68. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138285.Google Scholar
Owen, Richard. 1848. On the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton. London: Richard and John R. Taylor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, Richard. 2007 (1849). On the Nature of Limbs: A Discourse. Edited by Amundson, Ron. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo5550070.html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paley, William. 2009 (1803). Natural Theology: Or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature. 6th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peter, Isabelle S., and Davidson, Eric H.. 2011. “Evolution of Gene Regulatory Networks Controlling Body Plan Development.” Cell 144 (6): 970–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2011.02.017.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peter, Isabelle S., and Davidson, Eric H.. 2015. Genomic Control Process: Development and Evolution. San Diego: Academic Press. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20151001-085324137.Google Scholar
Pigliucci, Massimo. 2007. “Do We Need an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.” Evolution 61 (12): 2743–49.Google Scholar
Pigliucci, Massimo. 2019. “Causality and the Role of Philosophy of Science.” In Evolutionary Causation: Biological and Philosophical Reflections, edited by Tobias Uller and Kevin N. Laland, 13–28. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Prince, Victoria E., and Pickett, F. Bryan. 2002. “Splitting Pairs: The Diverging Fates of Duplicated Genes.” Nature Reviews Genetics 3 (11): 827–37. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg928.Google Scholar
Provine, William B. 2001 (1971). The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Raff, Rudolf A. 1996. The Shape of Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3683614.html.Google Scholar
Reeve, Hudson Kern, and Sherman, Paul W.. 1993. “Adaptation and the Goals of Evolutionary Research.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 68 (1): 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1086/417909.Google Scholar
Reis, Claudio Martins dos, Ricardo, and Araújo, Leonardo Augusto Luvison. 2020. “Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Neither Synthesis Nor Extension.” Biological Theory 15 (2): 57–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-020-00347-6.Google Scholar
Rudwick, Martin J. S. 1997. Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo3631234.html.Google Scholar
Rupke, Nicolaas. 2009. Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin. Revised ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Edward Stuart. 1982 (1912). Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Salazar-Ciudad, Isaac. 2021. “Why Call It Developmental Bias When It is Just Development?” Biology Direct 16 (1): 3, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13062-020-00289-w.Google Scholar
Sansom, Roger. 2008. “The Nature of Developmental Constraints and the Difference-Maker Argument for Externalism.” Biology & Philosophy 24 (4): 441–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-008-9121-2.Google Scholar
Sapp, Jan. 2009. The New Foundations of Evolution: On the Tree of Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schank, Jeffrey C., and Wimsatt, William C.. 1986. “Generative Entrenchment and Evolution.” PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986 (2): 33–60. https://doi.org/10.1086/psaprocbienmeetp.1986.2.192789.Google Scholar
Schindewolf, Otto H. 1993 (1950). Basic Questions in Paleontology: Geologic Time, Organic Evolution, and Biological Systematics. Edited by Reif, Wolf-Ernst. Translated by Judith Schaefer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, George Gaylord. 1984 (1944). Tempo and Mode in Evolution. Columbia Classics ed. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliott. 1980. “Evolution, Population Thinking, and Essentialism.” Philosophy of Science 47 (3): 350–83. https://doi.org/10.1086/288942.Google Scholar
Soshnikova, Natalia, Dewaele, Romain, Janvier, Philippe, Krumlauf, Robb, and Duboule, Denis. 2013. “Duplications of Hox Gene Clusters and the Emergence of Vertebrates.” Developmental Biology 378 (2): 194–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2013.03.004.Google Scholar
Speijer, Dave. 2011. “Does Constructive Neutral Evolution Play an Important Role in the Origin of Cellular Complexity?” BioEssays 33 (5): 344–49. https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201100010.Google Scholar
Stellwag, Edmund J. 1999. “Hox Gene Duplication in Fish.” Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology 10 (5): 531–40. https://doi.org/10.1006/scdb.1999.0334.Google Scholar
Sterelny, Kim. 2000. “Development, Evolution, and Adaptation.” Philosophy of Science 67 (September): S369–87. https://doi.org/10.1086/392832.Google Scholar
Stern, David L. 2000. “Perspective: Evolutionary Developmental Biology and the Problem of Variation.” Evolution 54 (4): 1079–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2000.tb00544.x.Google Scholar
Stern, David L., and Orgogozo, Virginie. 2008. “The Loci of Evolution: How Predictable is Genetic Evolution?” Evolution 62 (9): 2155–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00450.x.Google Scholar
Stewart, Thomas A., Bhat, Ramray, and Newman, Stuart A.. 2017. “The Evolutionary Origin of Digit Patterning.” EvoDevo 8 (1): 21 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-017-0084-8.Google Scholar
Stoltzfus, Arlin. 1999. “On the Possibility of Constructive Neutral Evolution.” Journal of Molecular Evolution 49 (2): 169–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00006540.Google Scholar
Stoltzfus, Arlin. 2012. “Constructive Neutral Evolution: Exploring Evolutionary Theory’s Curious Disconnect.” Biology Direct 7 (1): 35, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6150-7-35.Google Scholar
Stoltzfus, Arlin. 2021. Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stoltzfus, Arlin manuscript. “Grounding Internalism in the Population Genetics of the Introduction Process.” www.molevol.org/grounding-internalism/.Google Scholar
Stoltzfus, Arlin, and Cable, Kele. 2014. “Mendelian-Mutationism: The Forgotten Evolutionary Synthesis.” Journal of the History of Biology 47 (4): 501–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-014-9383-2.Google Scholar
Stopper, Geffrey F., and Wagner, Günter P.. 2007. “Inhibition of Sonic Hedgehog Signaling Leads to Posterior Digit Loss in Ambystoma Mexicanum: Parallels to Natural Digit Reduction in Urodeles.” Developmental Dynamics 236 (1): 321–31. https://doi.org/10.1002/dvdy.21025.Google Scholar
Sultan, Sonia E. 2015. Organism and Environment: Ecological Development, Niche Construction, and Adaptation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Svensson, Erik. 2021. “The Structure of Evolutionary Theory: Beyond Neo-Darwinism, Neo-Lamarckism and Biased Historical Narratives about the Modern Synthesis.” EcoEvoRxiv. https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/gjf8s.Google Scholar
Thompson, D’Arcy Wentworth. 1992 (1942). On Growth and Form. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Uller, Tobias, Feiner, Nathalie, Radersma, Reinder, Jackson, Illiam S. C., and Rago, Alfredo. 2020. “Developmental Plasticity and Evolutionary Explanations.” Evolution & Development 22 (1–2): 47–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/ede.12314.Google Scholar
Van Fraassen, Bas C. 1980. The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Van Fraassen, Bas C. 2002. The Empirical Stance. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wagner, Andreas. 2011. The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations: A Theory of Transformative Change in Living Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wagner, Günter P. 1989. “The Biological Homology Concept.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 20 (1): 51–69. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.20.110189.000411.Google Scholar
Wagner, Günter P. 2007. “The Developmental Genetics of Homology.” Nature Reviews Genetics 8 (6): 473–79. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2099.Google Scholar
Wagner, Günter P. 2014. Homology, Genes, and Evolutionary Innovation. Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691156460/homology-genes-and-evolutionary-innovation.Google Scholar
Wagner, Günter P., and Schwenk, Kurt. 2000. “Evolutionarily Stable Configurations: Functional Integration and the Evolution of Phenotypic Stability.” In Evolutionary Biology, edited by Hecht, Max K., Macintyre, Ross J., and Clegg, Michael T., 155–217. Boston: Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4185-1_4.Google Scholar
Wake, David B., Roth, Gerhard, and Wake, Marvalee H.. 1983. “On the Problem of Stasis in Organismal Evolution.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 101 (2): 211–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(83)90335-1.Google Scholar
Webster, Gerry, and Goodwin, Brian C.. 1982. “The Origin of Species: A Structuralist Approach.” Journal of Social and Biological Structures 5 (1): 15–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1750(82)91390-2.Google Scholar
Webster, Gerry, and Goodwin, Brian C.. 1996. Form and Transformation: Generative and Relational Principles in Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
West-Eberhard, Mary Jane. 2003. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution. Illustrated ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Whyte, Lancelot L. 1960. “Developmental Selection of Mutations.” Science 132 (3432): 954. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.132.3432.954.Google Scholar
Wideman, Jeremy G., Novick, Aaron, Muñoz-Gómez, Sergio A., and Doolittle, W. Ford. 2019. “Neutral Evolution of Cellular Phenotypes.” Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 58–59 (October): 87–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gde.2019.09.004.Google Scholar
Wiens, John J., and Hoverman, Jason T.. 2008. “Digit Reduction, Body Size, and Paedomorphosis in Salamanders.” Evolution & Development 10 (4): 449–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-142X.2008.00256.x.Google Scholar
Wimsatt, William C. 2013. “Evolution and the Stability of Functional Architectures.” In Functions: Selection and Mechanisms, edited by Huneman, Philippe, 19–41. Synthese Library. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5304-4_2.Google Scholar
Winther, Rasmus Grønfeldt. 2015. “Evo-Devo as a Trading Zone.” In Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives on Evolution and Development, edited by Love, Alan C., 459–82. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9412-1_21.Google Scholar
Witteveen, Joeri. 2015. “‘A Temporary Oversimplification’: Mayr, Simpson, Dobzhansky, and the Origins of the Typology/Population Dichotomy (Part 1 of 2).” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 54 (December): 20–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.09.007.Google Scholar
Witteveen, Joeri. 2016. “‘A Temporary Oversimplification’: Mayr, Simpson, Dobzhansky, and the Origins of the Typology/Population Dichotomy (Part 2 of 2).” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 57 (June): 96–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.09.006.Google Scholar
Witteveen, Joeri. 2018. “Typological Thinking: Then and Now.” Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 330 (3): 123–31. https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.b.22796.Google Scholar
Wray, Gregory A. 2007. “The Evolutionary Significance of Cis-Regulatory Mutations.” Nature Reviews Genetics 8 (3): 206–16. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2063.Google Scholar
Yampolsky, Lev Y., and Stoltzfus, Arlin. 2001. “Bias in the Introduction of Variation as an Orienting Factor in Evolution.” Evolution & Development 3 (2): 73–83. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-142x.2001.003002073.x.Google Scholar
Ziporyn, Brook. 2020. Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element 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.

Structure and Function
  • Rose Novick, University of Washington
  • Online ISBN: 9781009028745
Available formats
×

Save element 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.

Structure and Function
  • Rose Novick, University of Washington
  • Online ISBN: 9781009028745
Available formats
×

Save element 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.

Structure and Function
  • Rose Novick, University of Washington
  • Online ISBN: 9781009028745
Available formats
×