Evolutionary Thinking Across Disciplines Problems and Perspectives in Generalized Darwinism

This volume aims to clarify the epistemic potential of applying evolutionary thinking outside biology, and provides a survey of the current state of the art in research on relevant topics in the life sciences, the philosophy of science, and the various areas of evolutionary research outside the life sciences. By bringing together chapters by evolutionary biologists, systematic biologists, philosophers of biology, philosophers of social science, complex systems modelers, psychologists, anthropologists, economists, linguists, historians, and educators, the volume examines evolutionary thinking within and outside the life sciences from a multidisciplinary perspective. While the chapters written by biologists and philosophers of science address theoretical aspects of the guiding questions and aims of the volume, the chapters written by researchers from the other areas approach them from the perspective of applying evolutionary thinking to non-biological phenomena. Taken together, the chapters in this volume do not only show how evolutionary thinking can be fruitfully applied in various areas of investigation, but also highlight numerous open problems, unanswered questions, and issues on which more clarity is needed. As such, the volume can serve as a starting point for future research on the application of evolutionary thinking across disciplines.

1. Generalizing Darwinism as a Topic for Multidisciplinary Debate.- Part I: How Can Disciplines Benefit from, or Contribute to, Evolutionary Frameworks?. 2. Is a Non-Evolutionary Psychology Possible?.- 3. Evolutionary Economics and the Theory of Cultural Evolution.- 4. Repetition Without Replication: Notes Towards a Theory of Cultural Adaptation.- 5. The Epistemological and Ideological Stakes of Literary Darwinism.- 6. Evolutionary Aspects of Language Change.- 7. A Community Science Model for Inter-Disciplinary Evolution Education and School Improvement.- 8. Teaching for the Interdisciplinary Understanding of Evolutionary Concepts.- Part II: Generalizations of Evolutionary Theory: Common Principles or Explanatory Structures?. 9. From Games to Graphs. Evolving Networks in Cultural Evolution.- 10. Metaphysics of Evolution: Ontology and Justification of Generalized Evolution Theory.- 11. Human Social Evolution via Four Coevolutionary Levels.- Part III: Why Should We Be Skeptical of Generalizations of Darwinism?. 12. Is Natural Selection Physical?.- 13. The Risks of Evolutionary Explanation.- 14. Evolution and Ecology of Organizations and Markets.- 15. Pluralism and Epistemic Goals: Why the Social Sciences Will (Probably) not be Synthesised by Evolutionary Theory.- 16. Equations at an Exhibition: on the Cultural Price Equation.- 17. Unlike Agents: The Role of Correlation in Economics and Biology.- Part IV: How Can Evolutionary Approaches or the Target Field be Amended?. 18. From the Modern Synthesis to the Inclusive Evolutionary Synthesis: An Einsteinian Revolution in Evolution.- 19. Darwinian/Hennigian Systematics and Evo-Devo: the Missed Rendez-vous.- 20. The Generalized Selective Environment.- 21. Adding Agency to Tinbergen’s Four Questions.- 22. Cultural Evolution Research Needs to Include Human Behavioural Ecology.