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Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

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Published on: February 3, 2023

Systemic darwinism.

Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther¹

¹Philosophy Department, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. rgwinther@gmail.com

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|August 14, 2008

Summary

Systemic Darwinism integrates evolutionary theory by focusing on complex biological systems. This approach reconciles historical debates and unifies diverse biological theories for a deeper understanding.

Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Systems biology
Philosophy of biology

Background:

Darwin's theory of descent with modification established a conceptual framework for biology.
20th-century debates created perceived dichotomies in evolutionary concepts (e.g., law vs. narrative, organismic vs. hierarchical selection, variation vs. essentialism).
Contemporary research increasingly focuses on complex biological systems across multiple scales.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore the multidimensional conceptual space of Darwin's theory.
To re-examine and potentially resolve historical dichotomies in evolutionary thought.
To introduce and elaborate on the framework of Systemic Darwinism.

Main Methods:

Conceptual analysis of Darwin's theory across three dimensions: explanatory pattern, levels of selection, and degree of difference.

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Examination of 21st-century systems-focused research (genomic, cellular, organismic, ecological).

Integration of insights from Systems Theory, Systems Biology, and Hierarchy Theory.

Main Results:

Systemic Darwinism, based on a compositional paradigm, focuses on complex systems and their hierarchical networks.
It offers a potential reintegration of the dimensions of Darwin's original conceptual space.
This framework can coordinate and integrate various mathematical biological theories (e.g., self-organization, cladistics, evolutionary genetics).

Conclusions:

Systemic Darwinism provides a unified approach to biological ontology by investigating systems.
It requires interdisciplinary collaboration and articulation from multiple perspectives.
This framework promises to advance bioengineering and deepen the understanding of biological reality.