The Extended Synthesis: Something Old, Something New |
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Authors: | Daniel R Brooks |
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Institution: | (1) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G5, Canada |
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Abstract: | The eclipse of Darwinism began to end in the 1980s and hangs in the balance today. We need an Extended Synthesis, using “extension”
metaphorically. We must extend back in time to recover important aspects of Darwinism that were set aside, and then lost during
neo-Darwinism, then move forward beyond neo-Darwinism to encompass new data and concepts. The most comprehensive framework
for the Extended Synthesis is the Major Transitions in Evolution. The Extended Synthesis rests comfortably within a philosophical
perspective in which biology does not need to be connected with other areas of science in order to justify itself. I am attracted
to an older concept in which biology needs a covering law to connect it with the rest of the natural sciences. Darwin implicated
a “higher law,” but did not specify it. If we can elucidate that law, the Extended Synthesis will become the Unified Theory of Biology called for by Brooks and Wiley 25 years ago. |
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