In case you haven’t been following the series of posts by evolutionary biologist Dr. Arlin Stoltzfus posted on Sandwalk, here is a list hosted at his own site:
- The Curious Disconnect: Introduction (March 19, 2010).
- The Mutationism Myth 1. The Monk’s Lost Code and the Great Confusion (March 29, 2010) describes how the mutationism story is told in books and articles.
- Theory1 vs Theory2 (April 13, 2010) explores a hidden distinction that will prove very useful later.
- The Mutationism Myth, 2. Revolution (April 30, 2010) will show you how to think about evolution the way Darwin did.
- The Mutationism Myth, 3. Foundations of Evolutionary Genetics (May 19, 2010) shows some of the synthetic thinking of the Mendelians.
- The Mutationism Myth, 4. Mendelian Heterodoxies (May 25, 2010) explains their views of mutation as a source of initiative, discontinuity, creativity and direction.
- The Mutationism Myth, 5. The Restoration (June 14, 2010) tells how the Modern Synthesis restored “Darwinism”, at least in name.
- The Mutationism Myth, 6. Back to the Future (August 31, 2010) wrap ups the Mutationism Myth series and sets the stage for the future by locating the primary weakness of the 20th century neo-Darwinian consensus in its theory of variation.
Arlin is contemplating starting a new blog where this kind of topic could be explored and discussed, so stay tuned.
a very interesting series of articles. i would like to get your thoughts on a few points raised in the articles.
do you think we should abandon the narrative of the modern synthesis? the narrative of the Gene Pool?
how strong a role do constructive neutral evolution play in generating complexity in phenotypes.
How do you think about the percentage (rough guess) mix of processes operating at the genome level (e.g. percentage mix of selection, recombination, mutation, drift) , how do they interact with each other and how they produce phenotype?
oarobin(Quote)