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Notes
JS uses the term “mechanistic” (and related terms) throughout the book without distinguishing between an epistemological and ontological meaning (for an analysis of this issue see Nicholson 2012). In this review I shall follow JS’s uncritical usage.
JS uses the two terms interchangeably. One could argue that this is historically inadequate, given that “neo-Darwinism” is a much older expression referring to the position advocated by Weismann and others (Sapp 2003, p. 68). Nonetheless, I will again follow JS’s usage.
JS uses the term “paradigm” rather informally. Once more, I will follow this informal usage, though I realize that it is fraught with problems (see, e.g., Callebaut 2010).
One further point is that Shapiro talks about active cells employing their NGE capacities in order to “engineer” adaptive change, implying that cells can be considered agents and causes of change. I will focus on this crucial aspect of his argument below.
Note that teleology is understood here in an intrinsic (i.e., Aristotelian) sense. Only an extrinsic (i.e., Platonic) sense of teleology implies an external designer (see Lennox 1992). Hence, there is no link whatsoever between this form of teleology and intelligent design or creationism.
However, sometimes JS seems to argue that even proteins possess sensing capabilities (pp. 13–14). If this is the case, then cells are not so special after all. Even subcellular components might be considered as the fundamental units of life, as the genuine biological atoms. (See Nicholson 2010 on the issue of biological atomism.)
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Acknowledgements
I am profoundly grateful to Werner Callebaut, Dan Nicholson, and Maureen O’Malley for their extremely valuable comments and suggestions. I also thank the University of Santiago de Chile and the Chilean Government (Research Grant Fondecyt Iniciacion Investigacion No. 11110409) for all their support.
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Vecchi, D. The Trouble with Natural Genetic Engineering. Biol Theory 7, 80–88 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0024-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0024-8