Conflation and refutation: Book review of T. Uller and K. N. Laland. eds. 2019. Evolutionary causation: biological and philosophical Reflections. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 352: pp. ISBN: 978‐0‐262‐03992‐5. $60.00/£50.00

Article


Dickins, T. 2020. Conflation and refutation: Book review of T. Uller and K. N. Laland. eds. 2019. Evolutionary causation: biological and philosophical Reflections. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 352: pp. ISBN: 978‐0‐262‐03992‐5. $60.00/£50.00. Evolution. 74 (2), pp. 508-514. https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13916
TypeArticle
TitleConflation and refutation: Book review of T. Uller and K. N. Laland. eds. 2019. Evolutionary causation: biological and philosophical Reflections. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 352: pp. ISBN: 978‐0‐262‐03992‐5. $60.00/£50.00
AuthorsDickins, T.
Abstract

Evolutionary Causation, the new edited book from Tobias Uller and Kevin Laland (Uller and Laland, 2019) should be seen as a positive contribution to those seeking an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES). The ambition for an EES has emerged most vociferously over the past 15 years, but its antecedents stretch back to the key work in the 1970s of Gould, Lewontin and their colleagues. At root arguments for an EES are arguments about how the Modern Synthesis (MS) in evolutionary biology has been found wanting. Much of this discontent has been to do with theoreticians rethinking concepts of adaptation, inheritance and development (Jablonka and Lamb, 2006; Huneman and Walsh, 2017) as well as variation and macroevolution (Pigliucci and Muller, 2010). This book continues this work, but focuses on analysis of the central concept of causation within evolution.

KeywordsGenetics, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Research GroupBehavioural Biology group
PublisherWiley
JournalEvolution
ISSN0014-3820
Electronic1558-5646
Publication dates
Online07 Jan 2020
Print12 Feb 2020
Publication process dates
Deposited17 Jan 2020
Accepted26 Dec 2019
Output statusPublished
Accepted author manuscript
Copyright Statement

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Dickins, T.E. (2020), Conflation and refutation: Book Review of T. Uller and K. N. Laland. eds. 2019. Evolutionary Causation: Biological and Philosophical Reflections. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 352: pp. ISBN: 978‐0‐262‐03992‐5. $60.00/£50.00.. Evolution, 74: 508-514. doi:10.1111/evo.13916, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13916.
This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13916
LanguageEnglish
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