Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Three Kinds of Constructionism: The Role of Metaphor in the Debate over Niche Constructionism

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Biological Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 06 August 2015

Abstract

Throughout the years a lively debate has flourished around niche construction theory. A source of contention has been the distinction between narrow and broad construction activities proposed by critics. Narrow construction is limited to the production of evolutionarily advantageous artifacts while broad construction refers to construction activities that have an impact on the ecosystem but offer little or negative adaptive feedback to the organisms. The first has been acknowledged as relevant to evolutionary studies in that it increases species’ fitness and it is genetically inherited, while the second has been dismissed as accessory and irrelevant. I argue this distinction is unsatisfactory and leads to misinterpreting the achievements of niche construction theory. Instead I propose a three-tier categorization of constructionism (literal, analogical, and figurative) based on the analysis of the metaphor of construction itself. I show metaphors are not a mere rhetorical device but represent an instrument through which theories evolve and introduce new elements. In fact through this categorization I will be able to highlight two innovative features of constructionism: the introduction of reciprocal causation as a main causal framework and the expansion of studies about evolution to large frameworks involving multiple levels of biological organization. I will show their role in each of the three kinds of construction in order to offer a better understanding of the distinctive features of the niche construction approach. The innovations introduced encourage the revision of the concepts of adaptation and enlarge the range of phenomena to be considered relevant in biological studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Eucalypti’s fire regime is particularly interesting. From a classic point of view the interesting part is the adaptive value of the cyclical fires. However, from a strict constructionist point of view the creation of an energy deposit that will stir up the fire represents the construction activity, which locally also has a high adaptive value.

References

  • Avital E, Jablonka E (2000) Animal traditions: behavioural inheritance in evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bartha PFA (2010) The construction and evaluation of analogical arguments. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Black M (1962) Models and metaphors: studies in language and philosophy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowler PJ (1983) The eclipse of Darwinism: anti–Darwinian evolution theories in the decades around 1900. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowler PJ (1988) The non-Darwinian revolution: reinterpreting a historical myth. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowler PJ (1992) The Fontana history of the environmental sciences. Fontana, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown TL (2003) Making truth. Metaphor in science. University of Illinois Press, Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  • Carvalho GA, Barros AC, Moutinho P, Depstad D (2001) Sensitive development could protect Amazonia instead of destroying it. Nature 409:131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cogger HG (1998) Encyclopaedia of reptiles and amphibians, 2nd edn. Academic Press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin CR (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. John Murray, London. Available at Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/. Accessed: 24 April 2014

  • Davidson E (2001) Genomic regulatory systems: development and evolution. Academic Press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins R (1982) The extended phenotype: the long reach of the gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Day T, Bonduriansky R (2011) A unified approach to the evolutionary consequences of genetic and nongenetic inheritance. Am Nat 178:E18–E36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • deBrouwer JFC, Bjelic S, de Deckere EMGT, Stal LJ (2000) Interplay Between biology and sedimentology in a mudflat (Biezelingse Ham, Westerschelde, The Netherlands). Cont Shelf Res 20:1159–1177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Depew DJ, Weber BH (1995) Darwinism evolving:systems dynamics and the genealogy of natural selection. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Descartes R ([1637] 1965) Discourse on method. Optics, geometry, and meteorology. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis

  • Falkowski PG (1997) Evolution of the nitrogen cycle and its influence on the biological sequestration of CO2 in the ocean. Nature 387:272–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forshaw J (1998) Encyclopedia of birds, 2nd edn. Academic Press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Galloway LF, Etterson JR (2007) Transgenerational plasticity is adaptive in the wild. Science 318:1134–1136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray RD (2001) Selfish genes or developmental systems? In: Singh RS, Costas BK, Paul DB, Beatty J (eds) Thinking about evolution: historical, philosophical and political perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 184–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenspan R (2001) The flexible genome. Nat Rev. Genetics 2:383–387

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths PE (2005) Review of niche construction. Biol Philos 20:11–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths PE, Gray RD (1994) Developmental systems and evolutionary explanations. J Philos 91:277–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths PE, Gray RD (1997) Replicator II—judgementday. Biol Philos 12:471–492

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths PE, Gray RD (2005) Discussion: three ways to misunderstand developmental systems theory. Biol Philos 20:417–425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths PE, Knight RD (1998) What is the developmentalist challenge? Philos Science 65:253–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gullan PJ, Cranston PS (1994) The insects: an outline of entomology. Chapman and Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey W ([1628]1928) In: ExercitatioAnatomica de MotuCordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus. Charles C Thomas, Springfield

  • Henle P (ed) (1958) Language, thought, & culture. University of Michingan Press, Ann Arbor, p 173–195

  • Hilborn R, Stearns SC (1982) On inference in ecology and evolutionary biology: the problem of multiple causes. Acta Biotheor 31:145–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holland HD (1992) Adaptation in natural and artificial systems. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Hölldober B, Wilson EO (1994) Journey to the ants. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Houghton RA, Skole DL, Nobre CA et al (2000) Annual fluxes of carbon from deforestation and regrowth in the Brasilian Amazon. Nature 403:301–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jablonka E, Lamb MJ (2005) Evolution in four dimensions: genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic variation in the history of life. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones CG, Lawton JH, Shachak M (1994) Organisms as ecosystem engineers. Oikos 69:373–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones CG, Lawton JH, Shachak M (1997) Positive and negative effects of organisms as physical ecosystem engineers. Ecology 78:1946–1957

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karl DM, Michaels A, Bergman B et al (2002) Dinitrogenfixation in the world’s oceans. Biogeochemistry 57(58):47–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff G, Johnson M (1980) Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Laland KN, Sterelny K (2006) Seven reasons (not) to neglect niche construction. Evolution 60:1751–1762

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laland KN, Odling-Smee FJ, Feldman MW (2005) On the breadth and significance of niche construction: a reply to Griffiths, Okasha and Sterelny. Biol Philos 20:37–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laland KN, Sterelny K, Odling-Smee J et al (2011) Cause and effect in biology revisited: is Mayr’s proximate–ultimate dichotomy still useful? Science 334:1512–1516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leimar O, Hammerstein P, Van Dooren TJM (2006) A new perspective on developmental plasticity and the principles of adaptive morph determination. Am Nat 167:367–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis D (2000) Causation as influence. J Philos 97:182–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin RC (1974) The analysis of variance and the analysis of causes. Am J Hum Genet 26:400–411

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin RC (1983) Gene, organism and environment. In: Bendall DS (ed) Evolution from molecules to me. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp 273–285

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin RC (1991) Biology as ideology: the doctrine of DNA. Harper Collins, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin RC (2000) The triple helix: gene, organism, and environment. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin RC, Levins R (2007) Biology under the influence: dialectical essays on ecology, agriculture and health. Monthly Review Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin J, Harre R (1982) Metaphor in science. In: Miall DS (ed) Metaphor. The Harvester Press, Sussex, pp 89–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak RM (1991) Walker’s mammals of the world, 5th edn. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Odling-Smee FJ, Laland KN, Feldman MW (2003) Niche construction: the neglected process in evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Okasha S (2005) On niche construction and extended evolutionary theory. Biol Philos 20:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Oyama S (2000) Causal contributions and causal democracy in developmental systems theory. Philos Sci 67:S332–S347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paxton JR, Eschmeyer WN (eds) (1998) Encyclopedia of fishes, 2nd edn. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearce MJ (1997) Termites, biology and pest management. CAB international, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar S (2005) How genes encode information for phenotypic traits. In: Sarkar S (ed) Molecular models of life. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott-Phillips TC, Dickins TE, West SA (2011) Evolutionary theory and the ultimate/proximate distinction in the human behavioural sciences. Perspect Psychol Sci 6:38–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stauffer RC (1975) Charles Darwin's natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Steen GJ (2009) Three kinds of metaphor in discourse: a linguistic taxonomy. In: Musolff A, Zinken J (eds) Metaphor and discourse. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 25–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny K (2005) Made by each other: organisms and their environment. Biol Philos 20:21–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sumner FB (1922) Theorganism and its environment. Sci Mon 14(3):223–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Susser M (1977) Judgment and causal inference: criteria in epidemiologic studies. Am J Epidemiol 105:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Tebbich S, Taborsky M, Fessl B, Blomqvist D (2001) Do woodpecker finches acquire tool use by social learning? Proc R Soc Lond 286:2189–2193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson J (2003) Causation: omissions. Philos Phenomenol Res 66:81–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uller T (2012) Parental effects in development and evolution. In: Royle N, Smiseth P, Kölliker M (eds) Evolution of parental care. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace W (1892) The logic of Hegel. Clarendon Press, Oxford

  • Waters K (2007) Causes that make a difference. J Philos CIV:551–579

    Google Scholar 

  • Weismann A (1883) Über die Vererbung (On inheritance) Gustav Fischer, Jena  

  • Weismann A (1885/1891) The continuity of the germ–plasm as the foundation of a theory of heredity. In: Poulton EB, Schönland PS, Shipley AE (eds and trans) Essays upon heredity and kindred biological problems, vol 1. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp 67–106

  • West PM, Packer C (2002) Sexual selection, temperature and the lion’s mane. Science 297:1339–1343

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard MJ (2003) Developmental plasticity and evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • White RM (1996) The structure of metaphor: the way the language of metaphor works. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • White RM (2010) Talking about God: the concept of analogy and the problem of religious language. Hasgate, Farnham

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson EO (1975) Sociobiology: the new synthesis. Belknap Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodward J (2006) Sensitive and insensitive causation. Philos Rev 115:1–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodward J (2010) Causation in biology: stability, specificity, and the choice of levels of explanation. Biol Philos 25:287–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yablo S (1992) Mental causation. Philos Rev 101:245–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, The School of PRHS, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Emanuele Archetti

Authors
  1. Emanuele Archetti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emanuele Archetti.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Archetti, E. Three Kinds of Constructionism: The Role of Metaphor in the Debate over Niche Constructionism. Biol Theory 10, 103–115 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-015-0205-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-015-0205-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation