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The Two Sides of Innovation pp 291–309Cite as

Recent Developments in Evolutionary Biology and Their Relevance for Evolutionary Economics

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Part of the book series: Economic Complexity and Evolution ((ECAE))

Abstract

The paper gives attention to the question of whether the development of evolutionary theories in biology over the last 20 years has any implications for evolutionary economics. Though criticisms of Darwin and the modern synthesis have always existed, most of them have not been widely accepted or have been absorbed by the mainstream. Recent findings in evolutionary biology have started to question again the main principles of the modern synthesis. These findings suggest that phenomena of co-operation, communication, and self-organization have been underestimated, and that selection is not the predominant factor of evolution, but only one among many. Thus, in evolutionary economics, the question is whether the popular variation-retention-selection principle is still up to date. The implications for evolutionary economics with respect to analogies, generalized Darwinism, and the continuity hypothesis are also addressed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Since I am an economist and not a biologist and have had no training in biology, I apologize for any remaining obscurities and errors, in particular in the sections dealing with biology. Any comments and corrections are very welcome.

  2. 2.

    According to Müller (2005, pp. 98–102), evo-devo comprises four research programs: (1) The Comparative Morphology Program (2) The Epigenetic and Experimental Program (3) The Evolutionary Developmental Genetics Program (4) The Theoretical Biology Program.

  3. 3.

    Translation from German by the author of this paper.

  4. 4.

    Translation from German by the author of this paper.

  5. 5.

    “… the sorting of these variations as to which will persist and which will be discarded is determined by a powerful, selective and nonrandom process “(Carroll 2006, p. 290).

  6. 6.

    Translation from German by the author of this paper.

  7. 7.

    Genetic drift is the change in the relative frequency with which a gene variant occurs in a population when changes in the frequency of gene variants occur randomly. Genetic drift is acknowledged as an evolutionary principle, since it can reduce genetic variability. Changes in the gene pool are then considered to be either the consequence of random fluctuations in proportions (gene drift) or of non-random adaptations due to better adaptation (natural selection) (Futuyma 2007, p. 10). Depew/Weber’s interpretation in 1994 was: “If this theory [neutral theory by Kimura] is generally true, natural selection can no longer be presumed to be even heuristically the primary agent in evolutionary processes, and genetic drift, or something like it, can no longer be blithely treated as a trivial or merely annoying secondary evolutionary force” (Depew and Weber 1994, p. 363). Though the empirical evidence of genetic drift is now unambiguous, the question of the relative importance of selection and genetic drift still prevails in evolutionary biology today and is another instance of a possible completely divergent interpretation of the significance of an empirical phenomenon. (For a discussion of the different perspectives, see Kutschera and Niklas 2004, p. 269). For example, according to new findings, some exponents of the modern synthesis argue that genetic drift can no longer be considered to be crucial for speciation and they conclude that “[n]obody really doubts that most of the body parts have been formed by selection” (Orr 2009, p. 15). This demonstrates that, though genetic drift is recognized in the modern synthesis, it is degraded to a side effect or exception.

  8. 8.

    En passant it shall be noted that the recent findings in evolutionary biology—e.g. the finding of the ancient origin of the genes for building all kinds of animals—confirm the principle of common descent (Carroll 2006).

  9. 9.

    In some textbooks on biological evolution, the extended synthetic theory is already explicitly mentioned as the successor of the Synthetic Theory (Kutschera 2008, p. 83).

  10. 10.

    In the latest edition of his book, Bauer (2010) substituted the subtitle “evolution as a creative process” for “the end of Darwinism”, intending to avoid any confusion about his belief in the fact of evolution. Indeed, he declares the fact of evolution to be “irrevocable” (Bauer 2010, p. 9).

  11. 11.

    Quoted from Senglaub (1998, p. 577).

  12. 12.

    It is not the subject of this paper to discuss this question, but important characteristics are sentiments and perceptions. See also Capra (1996, part IV).

  13. 13.

    Exceptions were e.g. Silverberg et al. (1988), Foster (1997), Witt (1997).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

    Karin Knottenbauer

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  1. Karin Knottenbauer
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Correspondence to Karin Knottenbauer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany

    Guido Buenstorf

  2. Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Uwe Cantner

  3. University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    Horst Hanusch

  4. Social Science Research Center Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Hutter

  5. Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Hans-Walter Lorenz

  6. University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    Fritz Rahmeyer

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Knottenbauer, K. (2013). Recent Developments in Evolutionary Biology and Their Relevance for Evolutionary Economics. In: Buenstorf, G., Cantner, U., Hanusch, H., Hutter, M., Lorenz, HW., Rahmeyer, F. (eds) The Two Sides of Innovation. Economic Complexity and Evolution. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01496-8_15

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