then a molecular biological model of human behavioral, social, and cultural development will be the next big thing. This is a revision of a version sent earlier to some of you. Apologies for the redundancy.
Abstract
Development is a sequence of changes in the form and behavior of an organism or group of organisms that is probabilistically predictable from the duration of its existence. As we come to accumulate more and more knowledge about the molecular biology of embryological development, we should consider how that process might serve as a model on which to build an understanding of behavioral, social, or cultural development. The form of the embryo at each microstage in embryological development emerges from the regulation of the chemical activity of the genes by their organismic context, which is, in turn, an emergent of an earlier micro-stage of development. If such a model is to be built, we must think about the various analogues that will give the model its form: what is the analogue in behavioral development for the chemical signals that provide orientation in the early stages of development: What is the analogue in behavioral development for the gradients these signals form that provide locational information? What is the analogue in behavioral development for the hox genes that spring into action when disinhibited by the chemical context in which they find themselves? The answer to each of these questions may well be that there IS no such analogue, and the whole idea of modeling human behavioral and social development on embryological developmental processes is foolish. But given the vagaries of contemporary developmental theory, to prejudge the heuristic value of such modeling would be unwise.
Comments?
Nicholas S. Thompson
Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM (nick at redfish.com)
Professor of Psychology and Ethology (on leave), Clark University (nthompson at clarku.edu)
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