Cycles of Contingency Cycles Cover image: Of related interest Cycles of Contingency Developmental Systems and Evolution A new theoretical approach to the evolution of develop- The Evolution of Cognition Cycles of Contingency edited by Susan Oyama, Paul E. Griffiths, and mental systems and the relationship between genes edited by Cecilia Heyes and Ludwig Huber Russell D. Gray and biological form, such as advocated in this volume, Developmental Systems and Evolution also entails new tools of empirical analysis and hypoth- In the last decade, "evolutionary psychology" has come to refer exclusively to research on The nature/nurture debate is not dead. esis testing. Much of the present methodology of genet- human mentality and behavior, motivated by a nativist interpretation of how evolution Dichotomous views of development still underlie ic, developmental research is geared toward disclosing operates. This book encompasses the behavior and mentality of nonhuman as well as many fundamental debates in the biological and the very proximate roles of individual genes in single, human animals and a full range of evolutionary approaches. Rather than a collection by social sciences. Developmental systems theory mostly two-dimensional, snapshots of developmental and for the like-minded, it is a debate about how evolutionary processes have shaped (DST) offers a new conceptual framework with events. But development is a genuinely three-dimen- cognition. The debate is divided into five sections: Orientations, Categorization, Causality, which to resolve such debates. DST views ontogeny sional process of coordinating cell behavior over time, Consciousness, and Culture. as contingent cycles of interaction among a varied which requires an understanding of the dynamics of set of developmental resources, no one of which interactions among genes, cells, and tissues, which Where Biology Meets Psychology controls the process. These factors include DNA, lead to pattern formation and morphogenesis. New tools for the representation and analysis of embryonic Philosophical Essays cellular and organismic structure, and social and development must be able to take account of these edited by Valerie Gray Hardcastle ecological interactions. DST has excited interest three-dimensional (and ultimately four-dimensional) from a wide range of researchers, from molecular dynamics of development, including the topology and A great deal of interest and excitement surrounds the interface between the philosophy biologists to anthropologists, because of its ability timing of gene expression, the amounts of gene prod- of biology and the philosophy of psychology, yet the area is neither well defined nor well to integrate evolutionary theory and other disci- ucts, and cell proliferation parameters. And they must represented in mainstream philosophical publications. This book is perhaps the first to plines without falling into traditional oppositions. equally deal with the generic physical conditions pres- open a dialogue between the two disciplines. Its aim is to broaden the traditional subject ent in developing tissues, such as adhesiveness, diffu- matter of the philosophy of biology while informing the philosophy of psychology of rele- The book provides historical background to DST, sion, biomechanics, and other epigenetic parameters, vant biological constraints and insights. recent theoretical findings on the mechanisms of including distance, volume, and shape. Such new tools heredity, applications of the DST framework to of phenomic research comprise computer-based 3D behavioral development, implications of DST for the Oyama, Griffiths, and Gray, Griffiths, and Gray, Oyama, reconstruction techniques. The cover picture shows a philosophy of biology, and critical reactions to DST. 3D representation of the expression patterns of the muscle developmental regulatory gene Myf5 in a body Susan Oyama is Professor of Psychology, Emerita, segment and the limbs of a mouse embryo. These and at John Jay College, and at the CUNY Graduate other techniques of increasing sophistication (see, e.g., Center, New York City. Paul E. Griffiths is Professor http://www.univie.ac.at/GeneEMAC) not only permit pre- of History and Philosophy of Science at the cise three-dimensional analysis and database storage University of Pittsburgh. Russell D. Gray is Senior of comprehensive gene expression data, but also pro- Lecturer in Psychology at the University of vide a quantitative basis for the mathematical modeling Auckland. of context-dependent cell and tissue behaviors in devel- opment and evolution. The MIT Press Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Psychology Image and text by Gerd B. Müller and Johannes Streicher from the Integrative Morphology Group at Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 A Bradford Book the University of Vienna, Austria http://mitpress.mit.edu editors OYACH 0-262-15053-0 ,!7IA2G2-bfafdi!:t;K;k;K;k edited by Susan Oyama, Paul E. Griffiths, and Russell D. Gray CYCLES OF CONTINGENCY Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology Kim Sterelny and Rob Wilson, editors Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution, Susan Oyama, Paul E. Gri≤ths, and Russell D. Gray, editors, 2001 Coherence in Thought and Action, Paul Thagard, 2001 Norms of Nature: Naturalism and the Nature of Functions, Paul Sheldon Davies, 2001 CYCLES OF CONTINGENCY Developmental Systems and Evolution edited by Susan Oyama, Paul E. Gri≤ths, and Russell D. Gray A Bradford Book The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Times New Roman by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong in QuarkXpress, and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cycles of contingency: developmental systems and evolution / Susan Oyama, Paul E. Gri≤ths, and Russell D. Gray, editors. p. cm. “A Bradford book.” Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-15053-0 (alk. paper) 1. Developmental psychology. 2. Nature and nuture. 3. Genetic psychology. I. Oyama, Susan. II. Gri≤ths, Paul E. III. Gray, Russell D. BF713 .C93 2000 155.7—dc21 00-026951 Contents Preface vii 10 Niche Construction, Ecological Inher- Acknowledgments ix itance, and Cycles of Contingency in Contributors xi Evolution 117 Kevin N. Laland, F. John Odling- 1 Introduction: What Is Developmental Smee, and Marcus W. Feldman Systems Theory? 1 III THE DEVELOPMENT OF I INFLUENCES 13 PHENOTYPES AND BEHAVIOR 127 2 Toward a Systems View of Develop- 11 The Ontogeny of Phenotypes 129 ment: An Appraisal of Lehrman’s H. Frederik Nijhout Critique of Lorenz 15 12 The Development of Ant Colony Timothy D. Johnston Behavior 141 3 A Critique of Konrad Lorenz’s Theory Deborah M. Gordon of Instinctive Behavior 25 13 Behavioral Development and Daniel S. Lehrman Darwinian Evolution 149 4 A Developmental Psychobiological Patrick Bateson Systems View: Early Formulation and 14 Parental Care and Development 167 Current Status 41 Peter H. Klopfer Gilbert Gottlieb 5 Gene, Organism and Environment: IV RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT A New Introduction 55 AND EVOLUTION 175 Richard C. Lewontin 15 Terms in Tension: What Do You Do 6 Gene, Organism and Environment 59 When All the Good Words Are Richard C. Lewontin Taken? 177 Susan Oyama II RETHINKING HEREDITY 67 16 Darwinism and Developmental 7 Let’s Talk about Genes: The Process Systems 195 Molecular Gene Concept and Its Paul E. Gri≤ths and Russell D. Gray Context 69 17 Generative Entrenchment and the Eva M. Neumann-Held Developmental Systems Approach 8 Deconstructing the Gene and Recon- to Evolutionary Processes 219 structing Molecular Developmental William C. Wimsatt Systems 85 18 Developmental Systems, Darwinian Lenny Moss Evolution, and the Unity of Science 239 9 The Systems of Inheritance 99 Bruce H. Weber and David J. Depew Eva Jablonka vi Contents 19 From Complementarity to Obviation: On Dissolving the Boundaries between Social and Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, and Psychology 255 Tim Ingold V RESPONSES TO DEVELOPMEN- TAL SYSTEMS THEORY 281 20 On the Status and Explanatory Structure of Developmental Systems Theory 283 Peter Godfrey-Smith 21 Beyond the Gene but Beneath the Skin 299 Evelyn Fox Keller 22 Distributed Agency within Intersect- ing Ecological, Social, and Scientific Processes 313 Peter Taylor 23 Niche Construction, Developmental Systems, and the Extended Replicator 333 Kim Sterelny 24 Developmental Systems Theory and Ethics: Different Ways to Be Norma- tive with Regard to Science 351 Cor van der Weele Index 363 Preface The idea for this book emerged from sessions at the International Society for History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, first at Brandeis University in 1993, then at the University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1995 and the University of Washington in Seattle in 1997. The topic of these sessions was the developmental systems approach to development and evolution. Like the papers in those sessions, the papers collected here do not conform to any “party line.” Instead, the volume aims to explore the implications, potential and limitations of a group of ideas in which there has been a great deal of interest across a range of dis- ciplines. It aims to locate points of contact and points of disagreement