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Hierarchies and Integration in Evolution and Development

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Conceptual Change in Biology

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 307))

Abstract

This chapter argues that evolutionary developmental biology requires integrative and hierarchical approaches. It explores the nature and contributions of such approaches and the new “tools” and methods of analysis that facilitate the exploration of biological complexity. Because researchers in Evo-devo have usually embraced new methods and the need to examine multiple levels of biological organization, they have gained new insights into major questions and expanded the scientific research agenda.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See van der Steen 1990; Love 2008, regarding multidisciplinarity versus interdisciplinarity.

  2. 2.

    This differs structurally from Love’s (2006) framework for hierarchies, but has the same philosophical underpinning.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Alan Love and his co-organizers for the invitation to participate in the stimulating symposium that spawned this essay. David Wake’s comments on the manuscript improved its focus. I relish the many discussions with students and colleagues that have shaped my ideas about research strategies, questions and problems, and what an integrative biologist is and can be. I appreciate the support of the US National Science Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the American Philosophical Society, and the University of California, Berkeley, for my research over many years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, 3060 VLSB, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3140, USA

    Marvalee H. Wake

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Correspondence to Marvalee H. Wake .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Alan C. Love

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Wake, M.H. (2015). Hierarchies and Integration in Evolution and Development. In: Love, A. (eds) Conceptual Change in Biology. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 307. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9412-1_18

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