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The Adaptationist Programme in Molecular Evolution: The Origins of Genetic Codes

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Molecular Evolution and Protobiology

Abstract

Salthe (1982) has recently argued that a few notable contemporary evolutionary spokespersons are “guilty of excluding the origin of life from evolutionary theory.” This Anglo-American position has had strong currents ever since Darwin and has been criticized since then, especially by scholars from a Germanic-monistic tradition (Farley, 1972):

British scientists, whether followers of Bacon, Mill, or Whewell, were in agreement that any discussion of the origin of life was beyond the scope of science... a reluctance to discuss the origin of life was [due to] the strong background of Natural Theology. To dismiss God as the designer of organic life was one thing, but to dismiss him as the creator of life was quite another.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin, 53511, USA

    John R. Jungck

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  1. John R. Jungck
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technological University of Nagaoka, Nagaoka, Japan

    Koichiro Matsuno

  2. J. Gutenberg University, Mainz, Federal Republic of Germany

    Klaus Dose

  3. University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Kaoru Harada

  4. University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

    Duane L. Rohlfing

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© 1984 Plenum Press, New York

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Jungck, J.R. (1984). The Adaptationist Programme in Molecular Evolution: The Origins of Genetic Codes. In: Matsuno, K., Dose, K., Harada, K., Rohlfing, D.L. (eds) Molecular Evolution and Protobiology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4640-1_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4640-1_25

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4642-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4640-1

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