22 found
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  1.  51
    Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered.Bruce H. Weber & David J. Depew (eds.) - 2003 - MIT Press.
    The essays in this book discuss the originally proposed Baldwin effect, how it was modified over time, and its possible contribution to contemporary empirical...
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  2. Darwinism Evolving. System Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection.David J. Depew, Bruce H. Weber & Ernst Mayr - 1996 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 18 (1):135.
     
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  3. Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection.Daniel J. Depew & Bruce H. Weber - 1996 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47 (4):640-646.
  4. Natural selection and self-organization.Bruce H. Weber & David J. Depew - 1996 - Biology and Philosophy 11 (1):33-65.
    The Darwinian concept of natural selection was conceived within a set of Newtonian background assumptions about systems dynamics. Mendelian genetics at first did not sit well with the gradualist assumptions of the Darwinian theory. Eventually, however, Mendelism and Darwinism were fused by reformulating natural selection in statistical terms. This reflected a shift to a more probabilistic set of background assumptions based upon Boltzmannian systems dynamics. Recent developments in molecular genetics and paleontology have put pressure on Darwinism once again. Current work (...)
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  5.  87
    The Fate of Darwinism: Evolution After the Modern Synthesis.David J. Depew & Bruce H. Weber - 2011 - Biological Theory 6 (1):89-102.
    We trace the history of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, and of genetic Darwinism generally, with a view to showing why, even in its current versions, it can no longer serve as a general framework for evolutionary theory. The main reason is empirical. Genetical Darwinism cannot accommodate the role of development (and of genes in development) in many evolutionary processes. We go on to discuss two conceptual issues: whether natural selection can be the “creative factor” in a new, more general framework (...)
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  6. Entropy, Information and Evolution: New Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution.Bruce H. Weber, David J. Depew, James D. Smith & C. Dyke - 1990 - Behavior and Philosophy 18 (2):79-84.
     
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  7.  17
    Emergence of mind and the Baldwin effect.Bruce H. Weber - 2003 - In Bruce H. Weber & David J. Depew (eds.), Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered. MIT Press. pp. 309--326.
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  8.  41
    Developmental biology, natural selection, and the conceptual boundaries of the modern evolutionary synthesis.David J. Depew & Bruce H. Weber - 2017 - Zygon 52 (2):468-490.
    Using the evolution of the stickleback family of subarctic fish as a touchstone, we explore the effect of new discoveries about regulatory genetics, developmental plasticity, and epigenetic inheritance on the conceptual foundations of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. Identifying the creativity of natural selection as the hallmark of the Modern Synthesis, we show that since its inception its adherents have pursued a variety of research projects that at first seemed to conflict with its principles, but were accommodated. We situate challenges coming (...)
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  9. The fact of evolution: Implications for Science education.James R. Hofmann & Bruce H. Weber - 2003 - Science & Education 12 (8):729-760.
    Creationists who object to evolution in the science curriculum of public schools often cite Jonathan Well’s book Icons of Evolution in their support (Wells 2000). In the third chapter of his book Wells claims that neither paleontological nor molecular evidence supports the thesis that the history of life is an evolutionary process of descent from preexisting ancestors. We argue that Wells inappropriately relies upon ambiguities inherent in the term ‘Darwinian’ and the phrase ‘Darwin’s theory’. Furthermore, he does not accurately distinguish (...)
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  10.  77
    Emergence of Life.Bruce H. Weber - 2007 - Zygon 42 (4):837-856.
  11.  50
    On the Emergence of Living Systems.Bruce H. Weber - 2009 - Biosemiotics 2 (3):343-359.
    If the problem of the origin of life is conceptualized as a process of emergence of biochemistry from proto-biochemistry, which in turn emerged from the organic chemistry and geochemistry of primitive earth, then the resources of the new sciences of complex systems dynamics can provide a more robust conceptual framework within which to explore the possible pathways of chemical complexification leading to living systems and biosemiosis. In such a view the emergence of life, and concomitantly of natural selection and biosemiosis, (...)
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  12. Design and its discontents.Bruce H. Weber - 2011 - Synthese 178 (2):271 - 289.
    The design argument was rebutted by David Hume. He argued that the world and its contents (such as organisms) were not analogous to human artifacts. Hume further suggested that there were equally plausible alternatives to design to explain the organized complexity of the cosmos, such as random processes in multiple universes, or that matter could have inherent properties to self-organize, absent any external crafting. William Paley, writing after Hume, argued that the functional complexity of living beings, however, defied naturalistic explanations. (...)
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  13.  87
    Selection, interpretation, and the emergence of living systems.Bruce H. Weber - 2010 - Zygon 45 (2):361-366.
    The autocell proposal for the emergence of life and natural selection through the interaction of two reciprocally coupled self-organizing processes specifically provides a protein-first model for the origin of life that can be explored by computer simulations and experiment. Beyond the specific proposal it can be considered more generally as a thought experiment in which the principles deduced for the autocell could apply to other possible detailed chemical scenarios of catalytic polymers and protometabolism, including living systems emerging within membranelike barriers. (...)
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  14.  23
    Extending and expanding the Darwinian synthesis: the role of complex systems dynamics.Bruce H. Weber - 2011 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 42 (1):75-81.
    Darwinism is defined here as an evolving research tradition based upon the concepts of natural selection acting upon heritable variation articulated via background assumptions about systems dynamics. Darwin’s theory of evolution was developed within a context of the background assumptions of Newtonian systems dynamics. The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, or neo-Darwinism, successfully joined Darwinian selection and Mendelian genetics by developing population genetics informed by background assumptions of Boltzmannian systems dynamics. Currently the Darwinian Research Tradition is changing as it incorporates new information (...)
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  15.  86
    Origins of order in dynamical models. A review of Stuart A. Kauffman, the origins of order: Self organization and selection in evolution.Bruce H. Weber - 1998 - Biology and Philosophy 13 (1):133-144.
  16.  42
    Fact, Phenomenon, and Theory in the Darwinian Research Tradition.Bruce H. Weber - 2007 - Biological Theory 2 (2):168-178.
    From its inception Darwinian evolutionary biology has been seen as having a problematic relationship of fact and theory. While the forging of the modern evolutionary synthesis resolved most of these issues for biologists, critics continue to argue that natural selection and common descent are “only theories.” Much of the confusion engendered by the “evolution wars” can be clarified by applying the concept of phenomena, inferred from fact, and explained by theories, thus locating where legitimate dissent may still exist. By setting (...)
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  17.  68
    An Issue of Originality and Priority: The Correspondence and Theories of Oxidative Phosphorylation of Peter Mitchell and Robert J.P. Williams, 1961–1980.Bruce H. Weber & John N. Prebble - 2006 - Journal of the History of Biology 39 (1):125-163.
    In the same year, 1961, Peter D. Mitchell and Robert R.J.P. Williams both put forward hypotheses for the mechanism of oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria and photophosphorylation in chloroplasts. Mitchell's proposal was ultimately adopted and became known as the chemiosmotic theory. Both hypotheses were based on protons and differed markedly from the then prevailing chemical theory originally proposed by E.C. Slater in 1953, which by 1961 was failing to account for a number of experimental observations. Immediately following the publication of Williams's (...)
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  18.  84
    Irreducible complexity and the problem of biochemical emergence.Bruce H. Weber - 1999 - Biology and Philosophy 14 (4):593-605.
  19. The past illuminates the present.Bruce H. Weber - 2006 - Biology and Philosophy 21 (2):287-298.
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  20. And Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered.Bruce H. Weber & D. J. Depew (eds.) - 2003 - MIT Press.
     
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  21.  20
    Embracing the Biosemiotic Perspective.Bruce H. Weber - 2009 - Biosemiotics 2 (3):367-375.
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  22. Evolution in thermodynamic perspective: An ecological approach. [REVIEW]Bruce H. Weber, David J. Depew, C. Dyke, Stanley N. Salthe, Eric D. Schneider, Robert E. Ulanowicz & Jeffrey S. Wicken - 1989 - Biology and Philosophy 4 (4):373-405.
    Recognition that biological systems are stabilized far from equilibrium by self-organizing, informed, autocatalytic cycles and structures that dissipate unusable energy and matter has led to recent attempts to reformulate evolutionary theory. We hold that such insights are consistent with the broad development of the Darwinian Tradition and with the concept of natural selection. Biological systems are selected that re not only more efficient than competitors but also enhance the integrity of the web of energetic relations in which they are embedded. (...)
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