What does it mean to say that mutation is random? How does mutation influence evolution? Are mutations merely the raw material for selection to shape adaptations?
The author draws on a detailed knowledge of mutational mechanisms to argue that the randomness doctrine is best understood, not as a fact-based conclusion, but as the premise of a neo-Darwinian research program focused on selection. The successes of this research program created a blind spot - in mathematical models and verbal theories of causation - that has stymied efforts to re-think the role of variation. However, recent theoretical and empirical work shows that mutational biases can and
do influence the course of evolution, including adaptive evolution, through a first come, first served mechanism.
This thought-provoking book cuts through the conceptual tangle at the intersection of mutation, randomness, and evolution, offering a fresh, far-reaching, and testable view of the role of variation as a dispositional evolutionary factor. The arguments will be accessible to philosophers and historians with a serious interest in evolution, as well as to researchers and advanced students of evolution focused on molecules, microbes, evo-devo, and population genetics.
- ISBN:
- 9780198844457
- 9780198844457
-
Category:
- Evolution
- Format:
- Hardback
- Publication Date:
-
01-10-2021
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Country of origin:
- United Kingdom
- Pages:
- 288
- Dimensions (mm):
- 253x193x19mm
- Weight:
- 0kg
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