The Coevolution of Organism and Environment

Posted by Roger Critchlow-2 on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/The-Coevolution-of-Organism-and-Environment-tp518915.html

A month ago or more SFI managed to print and mail these descriptions of
this
week's Stanislaw Ulam Memorial Lectures by Richard Lewontin, but I can't
find
them on the web site, so here's what you might expect to hear on Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, 7:30 PM at the James A Little Theater.

Lecture I: "What is Evolutionary Theory?"

This lecture will discuss the origins of the theory of organic
evolution, what
the basic structure of Darwin's theory was, what evolutionary theory is
really
meant to explain and how the modern understanding of the process of
evolution
is different from Darwin's original idea.  It will also discuss what the
deep
problems of evolutionary explanation are and why evolution differs from the
usual simple model of what is required of a science.

Lecture II: "The Organism as Subject and Object of Evolution"

This lecture will challenge directly the notion that evolution is the
process
of "adaptation" of organisms to problems posed by the environment.  
Instead,
it will describe the evolution of the organism and its environment as a
co-evolutionary one best described as a process of "construction."

Lecture III: "Does Culture Evolve?"

This lecture will discuss the use of the notion of "evolution" to
describe the
history of human culture and the motivation for claiming that culture
"evolves."
It will challenge the use of organic evolution as a model for human
history and
discuss the serious problems in trying to use evolutionary theory for
historical
processes.

-- rec --