Niche Construction: How Life Contributes to Its Own Evolution - Couverture souple

Odling-Smee, John

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 026254816X ISBN 13 : 9780262548168

Editeur : The MIT Press, 2024

Synopsis

How niche construction theory extends evolutionary theory beyond natural selection to a more general theory about the coevolution of organisms with their environments.

In Niche Construction, John Odling-Smee, the leading authority on niche construction theory, extends evolutionary theory from an explanation of how populations of organisms respond to natural selection pressures in their environments to a more general theory about the coevolution of organisms with their environments. Organisms, he shows, cause changes in their local external environments by interacting with them, thereby contributing in fundamental ways to their own and one another’s evolution. This book applies niche construction theory to current problems such as human-induced global warming and suggests how humans might contribute positively to the future evolution of life on Earth.

Odling-Smee explains how orthodox evolutionary theory falls short in two ways. First, it does not describe how organisms contribute to their own and one another’s evolution through their environment-changing niche constructing activities. Second, it fails to explain how genetic evolution can give rise to supplementary knowledge-gaining processes in many species. These include certain developmental processes in individual organisms and socio-cultural processes in animals, including humans. Neo-Darwinism, the author writes, assesses the fitness of individual organisms in populations in terms of their capacity to survive and reproduce, but without attributing these capacities to the active, purposeful agency of organisms. He argues that the purposeful agency of individual organisms plays a central role in evolution. He also discusses the relationship of an organism’s energy-consuming activities and the second law of thermodynamics.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

John Odling-Smee is Emeritus Fellow of Mansfield College, University of Oxford. He is a coauthor of Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: The MIT Press
• Date d'édition: 2024
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 026254816X
• ISBN 13: 9780262548168
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 408
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible