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The Dialectical Biologist Richard Levins Richard C Lewontin Books

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The Dialectical Biologist Richard Levins Richard C Lewontin Books

This is a great book that has not received enough attention. Levins and Lewontin provide an authoritative review on many of the conceptual issues and problems with evolutionary and ecological theory of our time. The standard model for evolution that has spread since Richard Dawkin's release of the selfish gene is problematic and this book explains why. There is a three way intersection between gene, environment, and phenotype that cannot be discerned. Gene and environment are intertwined.

Not mentioned in this book, it is important to remember that the gene concept started out as a theory and remains a theory despite the popularized trend to treat of genes as though they are real entities. Lewontin is a geneticist (like me!) and this book provides a compelling critique on gene theory. Treating genes under the rubrik of genetic theory puts them in their proper place. The theory of genes in relation to developmental and ecological context is where scientists can better frame and understand the causality of pattern.

This book provides a critical analysis on many of the conceptual problems that arise time and again in evolutionary debates. Notably, the authors reveal why views on progressivist complexity and directional views on evolution are false - yet these ideas continue to surface even among trained biologists! It is unfortunate that Darwin's original evolutionary theory has too often been pushed aside for misplaced views that it has become antiquated. This progressionist view point is based on a misconception that the modern genetic "vantage" has fundamentally changed the way we understand evolution, thus making Darwin's theory obsolete. This fallacy about Darwin's theory needs to be thwarted forcibly and this book helps in this regard. As this book reveals, Charles Darwin's theory on selection was incomplete in causal reference to the origin of variation.

The modern synthesis helped to solve the problem on the origins on variation, but many authors pay too little attention to the devil in the details. This book reveals some of the problems with a view that puts too much emphasis on genetic mutation as the singular causal explanation for the origin of variation within populations. For example, Sewall Wright, who was a major player in the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis, provided a synthesis that was distinct from J. B. S. Haldane and R. A. Fisher. In this regard, the modern synthesis is not a monolitic conjoining of a singular theory because Wright identified a higher order randomness that operated above the gene through "interpopulational variation that may be selected and that also determines the background against which selection continues". In this context and review, Levins and Lewontin put Darwin's original concept of selection into the light of a synthesis that does not smoothly integrate the microevolutionary process of genetic determinism to causally explain macroevolutionary phenomena as many evolutionary biologists have contended in recent years.

The integrated selectionist view of evolutionary theory is consistent with the views of Theodosius Dobzhansky, Conrad Waddington, Stephen J. Gould, Niles Eldridge, Edward O. Wilson, Samir Okasha, Brian Hall and many other Eco-Evo-Devo biologists. Some of these names are notable as they have published books that sit beside the Selfish Gene, but the important theories they have developed, tested, and proven on multi-level selection continue to be sidelined as a theoretical indulgence compared to the concrete and indivisible gene. Well genes are not concrete, they are divisible, and it is difficult to even pinpoint what they are; even Dawkin's has stated that genes can be equated with heritable information and not with strings of nucleotides. It is also relevant to note that the selfish gene concept was not developed into a fully fledged theory until 2011 by Gardner and Welch!! Prior to this development, the selfish gene concept was more of a popularized metaphysical guess (abductive inference) than a testable scientific theory and it still remains to be determined if it is testable by deductive inference. In contrast, multi-level selection theory has been framed in different biological fields in a hypothetico-deductive testable framework. This book provides the theoretical case for a larger perspective on evolutionary theory well beyond the genetic determism that Dawkins and his followers use to simplify the case. In contrast to a smooth transition from micro-evolutionary sorting, there are punctuated phase transitions in the allometric scalars and selection that occurs in living systems.

Although the book may appear dated, being first published in 1985, the message still resonates strongly and the ideas are proving even more relevant to many of the modern discoveries in polygene and epigenetic expression studies. Enjoyable, well written, and easy to read. This book should remain a timeless classic for anyone wanting a critical analysis on modern evolutionary theory.

Product details Paperback 303 pages Publisher Aakar Books (December 30, 2009) Language English ISBN-10 8189833774

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The Dialectical Biologist Richard Levins Richard C Lewontin Books Reviews

Levins and Lewontin make us think about the real performance of science in society and how it (science) is product of society it is a relation of opposite.
Don't be missed by takin philosophy as scholastic reflection This book is exactly the opposite, this leads to new ways of action when workin on biological problems Sincerly one of the best books I've ever read.
Levins and Lewontin develop clear and deep ideas on a truly different view of the living world, away from new-age and close to the best traditions of materialist philosophy. I strongly recomend it.
In THE DIALECTICAL BIOLOGIST, Levins and Lewontin take a Marxist dialectical approach to examine the way and shape of contemporary biology. Not that I fully understand this approach, it does raise some intriguing critiques about the influence of the biotech-industrial complex and how groupthink and intertia of academia enforces dogma. I particularly liked the "Isadore Nabi" piece and the essay on agri-business.
As a working scientist, I think it is important to think and rethink the Big Picture of why and how we do what we do. THE DIALECTICAL BIOLOGIST addresses a few particular questions of ways of modern biology.
NB similar themes are covered in DOING SCIENCE THE REALITY CLUB #2, edited by John Brockman.
Excellent resource, thoughtfully stimulating, and engaging.
Truly brilliant. Essential reading for anyone who takes science seriously and wants to understand it within the social and historical contexts that influence the enterprise.
A must for biologists, especially for evolution, you should read the chapter "the organism as the object and subject of evolution"
This is a great book that has not received enough attention. Levins and Lewontin provide an authoritative review on many of the conceptual issues and problems with evolutionary and ecological theory of our time. The standard model for evolution that has spread since Richard Dawkin's release of the selfish gene is problematic and this book explains why. There is a three way intersection between gene, environment, and phenotype that cannot be discerned. Gene and environment are intertwined.

Not mentioned in this book, it is important to remember that the gene concept started out as a theory and remains a theory despite the popularized trend to treat of genes as though they are real entities. Lewontin is a geneticist (like me!) and this book provides a compelling critique on gene theory. Treating genes under the rubrik of genetic theory puts them in their proper place. The theory of genes in relation to developmental and ecological context is where scientists can better frame and understand the causality of pattern.

This book provides a critical analysis on many of the conceptual problems that arise time and again in evolutionary debates. Notably, the authors reveal why views on progressivist complexity and directional views on evolution are false - yet these ideas continue to surface even among trained biologists! It is unfortunate that Darwin's original evolutionary theory has too often been pushed aside for misplaced views that it has become antiquated. This progressionist view point is based on a misconception that the modern genetic "vantage" has fundamentally changed the way we understand evolution, thus making Darwin's theory obsolete. This fallacy about Darwin's theory needs to be thwarted forcibly and this book helps in this regard. As this book reveals, Charles Darwin's theory on selection was incomplete in causal reference to the origin of variation.

The modern synthesis helped to solve the problem on the origins on variation, but many authors pay too little attention to the devil in the details. This book reveals some of the problems with a view that puts too much emphasis on genetic mutation as the singular causal explanation for the origin of variation within populations. For example, Sewall Wright, who was a major player in the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis, provided a synthesis that was distinct from J. B. S. Haldane and R. A. Fisher. In this regard, the modern synthesis is not a monolitic conjoining of a singular theory because Wright identified a higher order randomness that operated above the gene through "interpopulational variation that may be selected and that also determines the background against which selection continues". In this context and review, Levins and Lewontin put Darwin's original concept of selection into the light of a synthesis that does not smoothly integrate the microevolutionary process of genetic determinism to causally explain macroevolutionary phenomena as many evolutionary biologists have contended in recent years.

The integrated selectionist view of evolutionary theory is consistent with the views of Theodosius Dobzhansky, Conrad Waddington, Stephen J. Gould, Niles Eldridge, Edward O. Wilson, Samir Okasha, Brian Hall and many other Eco-Evo-Devo biologists. Some of these names are notable as they have published books that sit beside the Selfish Gene, but the important theories they have developed, tested, and proven on multi-level selection continue to be sidelined as a theoretical indulgence compared to the concrete and indivisible gene. Well genes are not concrete, they are divisible, and it is difficult to even pinpoint what they are; even Dawkin's has stated that genes can be equated with heritable information and not with strings of nucleotides. It is also relevant to note that the selfish gene concept was not developed into a fully fledged theory until 2011 by Gardner and Welch!! Prior to this development, the selfish gene concept was more of a popularized metaphysical guess (abductive inference) than a testable scientific theory and it still remains to be determined if it is testable by deductive inference. In contrast, multi-level selection theory has been framed in different biological fields in a hypothetico-deductive testable framework. This book provides the theoretical case for a larger perspective on evolutionary theory well beyond the genetic determism that Dawkins and his followers use to simplify the case. In contrast to a smooth transition from micro-evolutionary sorting, there are punctuated phase transitions in the allometric scalars and selection that occurs in living systems.

Although the book may appear dated, being first published in 1985, the message still resonates strongly and the ideas are proving even more relevant to many of the modern discoveries in polygene and epigenetic expression studies. Enjoyable, well written, and easy to read. This book should remain a timeless classic for anyone wanting a critical analysis on modern evolutionary theory.