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This volume explores questions about conceptual change from both scientific and philosophical viewpoints by analyzing the recent history of evolutionary developmental biology. It features revised papers that originated from the workshop "Conceptual Change in Biological Science: Evolutionary Developmental Biology, 1981-2011" held at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin in July 2010.
In these papers, philosophers and biologists compare and contrast key concepts in evolutionary developmental biology and their development since the original, seminal Dahlem conference on evolution and development held in Berlin in 1981. Many of the original scientific participants from the 1981 conference are also contributors to this new volume and, in conjunction with other expert biologists and philosophers specializing on these topics, provide an authoritative, comprehensive view on the subject.
Taken together, the papers supply novel perspectives on how and why the conceptual landscape has shifted and stabilized in particular ways, yielding insights into the dynamic epistemic changes that have occurred over the past three decades. Conceptual Change in Biology will appeal to philosophers of biology studying conceptual change, evolutionary developmental biologists focused on comprehending the genesis of their field and evaluating its future directions, and historians of biology examining this period when the intersection of ev olution and development rose again to prominence in biological science.
Chapter 1: Conceptual Change and Evolutionary Developmental Biology; Alan C. Love
PART I: ADAPTATION, ALLOMETRY, HETEROCHRONY AND HOMOPLASY
Chapter 2: Adaptive Aspects of Development: A Thirty-year Perspective on the Relevance of Biomechanical and Allometric Analyses; Karl Niklas
Chapter 3: Do Functional Requirements for Embryos and Larvae Have a Place in Evo-devo? Richard Strathmann
Chapter 4: Is Heterochrony Still an Effective Paradigm for Contemporary Studies of Evo-devo? James Hanken
Chapter 5: Homoplasy, a Moving Target; David Wake
PART II: PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY, DEVELOPMENTAL VARIATION AND EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
Chapter 6: The Concept of Phenotypic Plasticity and the Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity in Life History Traits; Stephen Stearns
Chapter 7: A Developmental-physiological Perspective on the Development and Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity; H. Fred Nijhout
Chapter 8: Cellular Basis of Morphogenetic Change: A Retrospective from the Vantage Point of Developmental Signaling Pathways; John Gerhart
Chapter 9: The Road to Facilitated Variation; Marc Kirschner
PART III: MODELS, LARVAE, PHYLA AND PALEONTOLOGY
Chapter 10: Phyla, Phylogeny, and Embryonic Body Plans; Gary Freeman
Chapter 11: Evo-devo and the Evolution of Marine Larvae: From the Modern World to the Dawn of the Metazoa; Rudolf Raff
Chapter 12: Dahlem 1981: Before and Beyond; Armand de Ricqles
Chapter 13: What Salamander Biologists Have Taught Us about Evo-devo; James Griesemer
PART IV: CONSTRAINT AND EVOLVABILITY
Chapter 14: From Developmental Constraint to Evolvability: How Concepts Figure in Explanation and Disciplinary Identity; Ingo Brigandt
Chapter 15: Reinventing the Organism: Evolvability and Homology in Post-Dahlem Evolutionary Biology; Gunter Wagner
Chapter 16: Internal Factors in Evolution: The Morphogenetic Tree, Developmental Bias, and Some Thoughts on the Conceptual Structure of Evo-devo; Wallace Arthur
Chapter 17: Entrenchment as a Theoretical Tool in Evolutionary Developmental Biology; William Wimsatt
PART V: HIERARCHIES AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY
Chapter 18: Hierarchies and Integration in Evolution and Development; Marvalee Wake
Chapter 19: Development and Evolution: The Physics Connection; Stuart Newman
Chapter 20: The Interaction of Research Systems in the Evo-devo Juncture; Elihu Gerson
Chapter 21: Evo-devo as a Trading Zone; Rasmus Gronfeldt Winther
Index
"Conceptual Change in Biology presents and excellent collection of papers, written by some of the most central researchers and philosophers in the field, that situate original biological research in historical context in an engaging and accessible manner. In addition, thanks to the narrative and personal style of various authors the edition allows the reader approaching the current theoretical shift in biology and the conceptual transformations at the intersection between development and evolution, respectively, in a unique and lively fashion."
– Jan Baedke, Acta Biotheoretica, Vol. 64, 2016
"This book does a very good job of showing how around 1980 scientists from fields as different as paleontology and molecular embryology came together to found EvoDevo. [...] The book is nicely produced and most chapters well illustrated. [...] The book is also well bound and will withstand intense use in libraries, labs, and offices. [...] recommended to both research workers and advanced students of history and philosophy of biology, as well as to evolutionary biologists."
– Lennart Olsson, Biological Theory, Vol. 11, 2016
"The book is the product of a 2010 workshop commemorating the influential 1981 Dahlem conference that inspired the research program now known as evolutionary developmental biology, or Evo-devo. [...] theorists who take the time to digest this collection's offerings will find it a resource worth consuming. [...] The book's essays give conceptual and historical context to current debates such as the one over dinosaur integument."
– Leonard Finkelman, Metascience, Vol. 24, 2015
"This book offers an excellent set of examples of the large extent to which an individual researcher can modify targets, approaches, and eventually interpretations of nature along his or her career [...] ."
– Alessandro Minelli, Science and Education, Vol. 24, 2015
