Mechanisms of evolution


2004/2005 autumn semester, 2 points [ZBI-1.2233] - EPMÜ
Tuesday 12-16. Kreutzwaldi 5-2B7. Beginning - October 19. Next - Oct. 26. [Thursday 12-14, Friday 14-16].
Professor: Kalevi Kull


The course includes a review of major theories of evolution and their history, main paradigms of evolutionism, evolutionary mechanisms in human evolution and domestication of plants and animals, the methods of phylogeny reconstruction, contemporary debates in evolution research. The topics include the history and development of evolutionism, the appearence of Darwinism, the mechanism of natural selection, the differences between natural and sexual selection, organic selection (J.M.Baldwin), the problem of teleology (K.E.v.Baer and C.Darwin), nomogenesis (L.Berg, S.Meyen), mechanisms of speciation (E.Mayr, H.Paterson), dabates of S.J.Gould ja R.Dawkins, the role of communication and symbiosis in evolution, post-modern and post-darwinian evolutionism.

Topics

1. History of evolutionism (early - Lovejoy 1964; 19th century - Lenoir 1982; 20th century - Brauckmann 1997; Fisher 1954; Maynard Smith 1986; Gould 1986).
2. History of Darwinism (Ospovat 1995).
3. The mechanism of natural selection.
4. Natural and sexual selection.
5. Organic selection (J.M.Baldwin).
6. Problem of teleology (K.E.v.Baer and C.Darwin).
7. Nomogenesis (L.Berg, S.Meyen).
8. Mechanisms of speciation (E.Mayr, H.Paterson).
9. S.J.Gould and R.Dawkins.
10. Role of communication and symbiosis in evolution.
11. Postmodern and postdarwinian evolutionism.

Writing

A review paper on the 'Current problems in understanding evolution'.
The text should formulate the problems, and describe the possible ways to approach their solution. References required.

Literature

Baldwin, James Mark (1896). A new factor in evolution.
Brauckmann S., Kull K. 1997. Nomogenetic biology and its Western counterparts. In: Naumov R.V., Marasov A.N., Gurkin V.A. (eds.). Lyubischevskie Chteniya 1997. Ul'yanovsk: Ul'yanovskij gosudarstvennyj pedagogicheskij universitet, pp. 72-77.
Darwin, C. [1859] Origin of Species. 6th ed.
Depew, David J.; Weber, Bruce H. 1997. Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection. Cambridge: A Bradford Book.
Fisher, Ronald A. 1954. Retrospect of the criticisms of the theory of natural selection. In: Huxley, Julian; Hardy, A. C.; Ford, E. B. (eds.), Evolution as a Process. London: George Allen & Unwin, 84-98.
Gould, Stephen Jay 1977. Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge: The Belknap Press.
Gould, Stephen Jay 1986. The hardening of the modern synthesis. In: Grene 1986: 71-93.
Gould, Stephen Jay 2002. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge: The Belknap Press.
Grene, Marjorie (ed.) 1986 [1983]. Dimensions of Darwinism: Themes and Counterthemes in Twentieth-Century Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Griffiths, Paul E. Beyond the Baldwin effect: James Mark Baldwin's 'social heredity', epigenetic inheritance and niche-construction'. [Abstract.]
Jablonka Eva, Lamb Marion, Eytan Avital (1998). "Lamarckian" mechanisms in darwinian evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13(5): 206-210.
Kauffman, Stuart A. 1993. The Origins of Order. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kull, K. 2000. Organisms can be proud to have been their own designers. Cybernetics and Human Knowing 7(1): 45-55.
Kull, K. 1998. Baerian biology: evolution by means of organisms' interpretation. In: Farre G.L., Oksala T. (eds.). Emergence, Complexity, Hierarchy, Organization. Espoo, 197-200.
Kull, K. 1999. Outlines for a post-Darwinian biology. Folia Baeriana 7, 129-142.
Lenoir, Timothy 1984. The Strategy of Life: Teleology and Mechanics in Nineteenth Century German Biology. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Lovejoy, Arthur O. 1964 [1936]. The Great Chain of Being. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Maynard Smith, John 1986. Current controversies in evolutionary biology. In: Grene 1986: 273-286.
Mayr, Ernst 1997 [1976]. Evolution and the Diversity of Life. Cambridge: The Belknap Press.
Odling-Smee, John Niche construction.
Ospovat, Dov 1995. The Development of Darwin's Theory: Natural History, Natural Theology, and Natural Selection, 1838-1859. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thompson, John N. 1994. The Coevolutionary Process. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Web sites (e.g.):

Understanding evolution
A timeline of evolutionary thought