Chance in evolution

Description

Humans, however much we would care to think otherwise, do not represent the fated pinnacle of ape evolution. The diversity of life, from single-celled organisms to multicellular animals and plants, is the result of a long, complex, and highly chancy history. But how profoundly has chance shaped life on earth? And what, precisely, do we mean by chance? Bringing together biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of science, Chance in Evolution is the first book to untangle the far-reaching effects of chance, contingency, and randomness on the evolution of life. The book begins by placing chance in historical context, starting with the ancients and moving through Darwin and his contemporaries, documenting how the understanding of chance changed as Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection developed into the modern synthesis, and how the acceptance of chance in Darwinian theory affected theological resistance to it. Subsequent chapters detail the role of chance in contemporary evolutionary theory—in particular, in connection with the concepts of genetic drift, mutation, and parallel evolution—as well as recent empirical work in the experimental evolution of microbes and in paleobiology. By engaging in collaboration across biology, history, philosophy, and theology, this book offers a comprehensive and synthetic overview both of the history of chance in evolution and of our current best understanding of the impact of chance on life on earth. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Chance in Evolution from Darwin to Contemporary Biology / Grant Ramsey and Charles H. Pence Part I. The Historical Development and Implications of Chance in Evolution 1. Contingency, Chance, and Randomness in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Biology / David J. Depew 2. Chance and Chances in Darwin’s Early Theorizing and in Darwinian Theory Today / Jonathan Hodge 3. Chance in the Modern Synthesis / Anya Plutynski, Kenneth Blake Vernon, Lucas John Matthews, and Daniel Molter 4. Is it Providential, by Chance? Christian Objections to the Role of Chance in Darwinian Evolution / J. Matthew Ashley 5. Does Darwinian Evolution Mean We Are Here by Chance? / Michael Ruse Part 2. Chance in the Processes of Evolution 6. The Reference Class Problem in Evolutionary Biology: Distinguishing Selection from Drift / Michael Strevens 7. Weak Randomness at the Origin of Biological Variation: The Case of Genetic Mutations / Francesca Merlin 8. Parallel Evolution: What Does It (Not) Tell Us and Why Is It (Still) Interesting? / Thomas Lenormand, Luis-Miguel Chevin, and Thomas Bataillon Part 3. Chance and Contingency in the History of Life 9. Contingent Evolution: Not by Chance Alone / Eric Desjardins 10. History’s Windings in a Flask: Microbial Experiments into Evolutionary Contingency / Zachary D. Blount 11. Rolling the Dice Twice: Evolving Reconstructed Ancient Proteins in Extant Organisms / Betul Kacar 12. Wonderful Life Revisited: Chance and Contingency in the Ediacaran-Cambrian Radiation / Douglas H. Erwin References Contributors Index