Piaget’s Behaviour and Evolution (1976) sought to reconcile the view that organismal adaptiveness – in the form of equilibration – could contribute to human behavioural, cognitive, and epistemic evolution with the prevailing evolutionary orthodoxy of the time. He was particularly concerned to demonstrate that human behaviour, cognition, and knowledge acquisition could be drivers of human evolution. Piaget hypothesised constructive role for organisms in evolution was significantly at variance with the prevailing modern synthesis orthodoxy of his time (and ours). He looked to Conrad Hal Waddington’s genetic assimilation as a model for how equilibration could generate evolutionary novelties which become fixed by subsequent evolution. I make two claims. Firstly, that Piaget’s appeal to Waddington fails to reconcile his views of human evolution with the modern synthesis. Secondly, the newly emerging agential conception of evolution, in which the purposive activities of organisms are the principal causes of evolution, offers strong support to Piaget’s model of “organisational” evolution.
皮亚杰的行为与进化</i>(1976)试图将有机体适应性——以平衡的形式——可以促进人类行为、认知和认知进化的观点与当时盛行的进化论正统观点相协调。他特别关注证明人类的行为、认知和知识获取可能是人类进化的驱动力。皮亚杰假设生物体在进化中起着建设性的作用,这与他那个时代(以及我们这个时代)盛行的现代综合正统论有很大的不同。他把康拉德·哈尔·沃丁顿(Conrad Hal Waddington)的遗传同化理论作为一个模型,来解释平衡如何产生进化上的新事物,这些新事物在随后的进化中被固定下来。我有两点主张。首先,皮亚杰对沃丁顿的呼吁未能使他的人类进化观点与现代综合理论相协调。其次,新出现的进化的代理概念,其中生物体的目的活动是进化的主要原因,为皮亚杰的“组织”进化模型提供了强有力的支持。
{"title":"Piaget’s Paradox: Adaptation, Evolution, and Agency","authors":"Denis Walsh","doi":"10.1159/000534306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000534306","url":null,"abstract":"Piaget’s <i>Behaviour and Evolution</i> (1976) sought to reconcile the view that organismal adaptiveness – in the form of equilibration – could contribute to human behavioural, cognitive, and epistemic evolution with the prevailing evolutionary orthodoxy of the time. He was particularly concerned to demonstrate that human behaviour, cognition, and knowledge acquisition could be drivers of human evolution. Piaget hypothesised constructive role for organisms in evolution was significantly at variance with the prevailing modern synthesis orthodoxy of his time (and ours). He looked to Conrad Hal Waddington’s genetic assimilation as a model for how equilibration could generate evolutionary novelties which become fixed by subsequent evolution. I make two claims. Firstly, that Piaget’s appeal to Waddington fails to reconcile his views of human evolution with the modern synthesis. Secondly, the newly emerging agential conception of evolution, in which the purposive activities of organisms are the principal causes of evolution, offers strong support to Piaget’s model of “organisational” evolution.","PeriodicalId":47837,"journal":{"name":"Human Development","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135297588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Developmental biology has expanded to include prenatal and postnatal environmental factors as agents in producing phenotypes. Environmental agents can alter gene expression patterns and channel development into particular trajectories. Prenatal environments (e.g., diet, stress) can induce gene expression patterns that change metabolism in ways that can promote the survival of the offspring born into that particular environment. In addition to abiotic environmental agents, symbiotic microbes are necessary for the completion of mammalian development and have been shown to be critical for the proper development of the immune system and nervous system. The symbiotic microbes become organized into ecosystems within the body, especially in the gut, and the appreciation that organisms develop as conjoined ecosystems has important implications for biology, psychology, medicine, and public health. Indeed, microbial symbionts are necessary for the development of numerous cognitive and social behaviors in mice, and probably also in humans.
{"title":"Holobiont Development: Embryology and Ecological Succession","authors":"Scott F. Gilbert","doi":"10.1159/000534203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000534203","url":null,"abstract":"Developmental biology has expanded to include prenatal and postnatal environmental factors as agents in producing phenotypes. Environmental agents can alter gene expression patterns and channel development into particular trajectories. Prenatal environments (e.g., diet, stress) can induce gene expression patterns that change metabolism in ways that can promote the survival of the offspring born into that particular environment. In addition to abiotic environmental agents, symbiotic microbes are necessary for the completion of mammalian development and have been shown to be critical for the proper development of the immune system and nervous system. The symbiotic microbes become organized into ecosystems within the body, especially in the gut, and the appreciation that organisms develop as conjoined ecosystems has important implications for biology, psychology, medicine, and public health. Indeed, microbial symbionts are necessary for the development of numerous cognitive and social behaviors in mice, and probably also in humans.","PeriodicalId":47837,"journal":{"name":"Human Development","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136378844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Currently, a central problem for theoretical biology is the integration of development with genetics and evolutionary theory. Through the late 20th century, biologists held that animals resemble their ancestors strictly because of the transgenerational transmission of DNA. This view effectively wrote development out of evolutionary biology. However, many molecular and developmental biologists now understand that phenotypes – anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits – are not determined by genes (i.e., DNA segments) alone; instead, they emerge epigenetically from developmental processes involving co-acting genetic factors, environmental factors, molecular epigenetic factors, and other non-genetic factors within organisms’ bodies. This insight forces a rethinking of biological inheritance. Perspectives focusing on the dynamics of developmental systems offer a compelling alternative way to think about inheritance, providing a powerful substitute to the reductionistic framework that attributes phenotypic outcomes to genetic instructions set in advance of developmental processes. Rethinking genetics, epigenetics, and inheritance by focusing on the dynamics of developmental systems helps highlight the bidirectional effects of evolutionary and developmental processes on one another, yielding a more integrated understanding of development, inheritance, and evolution. Simultaneously, this approach encourages rejection of genetic determinism, a simplistic perspective that continues to appear in psychological writing, despite its biological implausibility.
{"title":"Molecular and Systemic Epigenetic Inheritance: Integrating Development, Genetics, and Evolution","authors":"Robert Lickliter, David S. Moore","doi":"10.1159/000533192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000533192","url":null,"abstract":"Currently, a central problem for theoretical biology is the integration of development with genetics and evolutionary theory. Through the late 20th century, biologists held that animals resemble their ancestors strictly because of the transgenerational transmission of DNA. This view effectively wrote development out of evolutionary biology. However, many molecular and developmental biologists now understand that phenotypes – anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits – are not determined by genes (i.e., DNA segments) alone; instead, they emerge epigenetically from developmental processes involving co-acting genetic factors, environmental factors, molecular epigenetic factors, <i>and</i> other non-genetic factors within organisms’ bodies. This insight forces a rethinking of biological inheritance. Perspectives focusing on the dynamics of developmental systems offer a compelling alternative way to think about inheritance, providing a powerful substitute to the reductionistic framework that attributes phenotypic outcomes to genetic instructions set <i>in advance</i> of developmental processes. Rethinking genetics, epigenetics, and inheritance by focusing on the dynamics of developmental systems helps highlight the bidirectional effects of evolutionary and developmental processes on one another, yielding a more integrated understanding of development, inheritance, and evolution. Simultaneously, this approach encourages rejection of genetic determinism, a simplistic perspective that continues to appear in psychological writing, despite its biological implausibility.","PeriodicalId":47837,"journal":{"name":"Human Development","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135486885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeremy I.M. Carpendale, Viktoria A. Kettner, Irene Guevara de Haro
Communicative development can be better understood by examining the diversity of gestures and how various forms of gestures are interlinked in their developmental origins – their genealogy. To draw attention to the differences and interrelations among forms of gestures, we group gestures into three families based on their developmental origins: (1) action-based gestures that develop from infants’ spontaneous actions that others respond to; (2) conventional gestures; and (3) iconic gestures. Although these diverse gestures are acquired through somewhat different developmental pathways, we argue that they develop in the context of shared experiences within social routines. What differs is the relative role of the caregiver and child in initiating the routine. In viewing communicative development in this way, we show the importance of basing our investigations on an adequate conception of meaning in order to recognize the similarity in the underlying processes involved in early communicative development.
{"title":"A Genealogy of Gestures: On the Nature and Emergence of Forms of Gestural Communication within Shared Routines","authors":"Jeremy I.M. Carpendale, Viktoria A. Kettner, Irene Guevara de Haro","doi":"10.1159/000533645","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000533645","url":null,"abstract":"Communicative development can be better understood by examining the diversity of gestures and how various forms of gestures are interlinked in their developmental origins – their genealogy. To draw attention to the differences and interrelations among forms of gestures, we group gestures into three families based on their developmental origins: (1) action-based gestures that develop from infants’ spontaneous actions that others respond to; (2) conventional gestures; and (3) iconic gestures. Although these diverse gestures are acquired through somewhat different developmental pathways, we argue that they develop in the context of shared experiences within social routines. What differs is the relative role of the caregiver and child in initiating the routine. In viewing communicative development in this way, we show the importance of basing our investigations on an adequate conception of meaning in order to recognize the similarity in the underlying processes involved in early communicative development.","PeriodicalId":47837,"journal":{"name":"Human Development","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136350025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Can the study of epigenetics, physiology and cognitive science contribute to the investigation and understanding of social-cultural systems while respecting the autonomy of social research? I present a developmental system theory (DST) approach, which takes the unit of analysis to be the system of self-sustaining interactions among multiple biological, psychological and social resources. On this view, the cybernetic architecture of the networks that constitute the system channels development, so that different trajectories lead to convergent end-states, accounting for the system’s developmental stability, as well as shedding light on the conditions that lead to departures from typical outcomes. Based on previous work, which is extended here, I suggest that Waddington’s epigenetic landscape metaphor, which was built to illustrate the relationship between genetic networks and embryological development is a useful tool for thinking about the temporal dynamics of social systems, capturing some important features of social stability and change at different scales and levels of social organization. I discuss five social systems using the landscape metaphor and explore the implications of this DST approach for investigating the relations between socio-cultural development and evolution.
{"title":"Interacting Networks in Social Landscapes \u0000Interacting Networks in Social Landscapes: A Devo-Evo Approach to Social-cultural Dynamics","authors":"E. Jablonka","doi":"10.1159/000533164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000533164","url":null,"abstract":"Can the study of epigenetics, physiology and cognitive science contribute to the investigation and understanding of social-cultural systems while respecting the autonomy of social research? I present a developmental system theory (DST) approach, which takes the unit of analysis to be the system of self-sustaining interactions among multiple biological, psychological and social resources. On this view, the cybernetic architecture of the networks that constitute the system channels development, so that different trajectories lead to convergent end-states, accounting for the system’s developmental stability, as well as shedding light on the conditions that lead to departures from typical outcomes. Based on previous work, which is extended here, I suggest that Waddington’s epigenetic landscape metaphor, which was built to illustrate the relationship between genetic networks and embryological development is a useful tool for thinking about the temporal dynamics of social systems, capturing some important features of social stability and change at different scales and levels of social organization. I discuss five social systems using the landscape metaphor and explore the implications of this DST approach for investigating the relations between socio-cultural development and evolution.","PeriodicalId":47837,"journal":{"name":"Human Development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48546460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}