Breaking Mariano Artigas’ Frontiers of Evolutionism

I review Mariano Artigas’ appraisal of Evolution as reflected in some of his works. I find that his perception of evolutionary theory changed from a critical attitude, mainly directed against the modern synthesis of the twentieth century, to a more lenient approach as he incorporated new elements in...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Novo-Villaverde, F. J. (Francisco Javier)|||/items/703bb2c3-c163-4a9b-a218-5cb3837f1b84
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Navarra
Repositorio:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/42785
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/42785
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Philosophy of biology
Genomics
Evolution
Mariano Artigas
Descripción
Sumario:I review Mariano Artigas’ appraisal of Evolution as reflected in some of his works. I find that his perception of evolutionary theory changed from a critical attitude, mainly directed against the modern synthesis of the twentieth century, to a more lenient approach as he incorporated new elements into his reflections. However, he did not fully appreciate some of the advances made in evolutionary biology in recent years. I provide some examples, taken from the field of evolutionary genomics, which shed new light on why evolvability is a necessary property of living beings and how adaptation proceeds through the rewiring of modular gene regulatory networks, resulting in a remarkable degree of phenotypic plasticity. This view provides a richer understanding of two key elements of Artigas’ portrayal of the modern worldview: dynamism and patterning.