Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, Epigenetics and the Contingency of Evolution

Abstract

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) includes Evolutionary Developmental biology (EvoDevo), epigenetics, the concept of niche construction, a new understanding of non-genetic plasticity and group selection. Niche construction and ecological engineering are concepts necessary for modeling human cultural and religious evolution. In popular understanding, epigenetic effects are heritable variations which are not coded by DNA sequences. Some voices proclaim that they establish a revolutionary, quasi-Lamarckian mechanism of evolution. The discussion of this proposal involves the famous Overkalix study. The result is sobering: Epigenetic effects are an important module of the EES, but do not revolutionize the biological theory of evolution. It will be argued that epigenetic phenomena do not form a sufficient basis for returning to a teleological view of natural evolution. On the contrary, EES eliminates residual teleological elements in evolutionary biology. However, neither EES nor other recent theoretical developments explain the evolutionary trajectory of a species, or of the entire biosphere, on a large scale.