Max Delbruck (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_
Ernst Mayr warns us repeatedly about the essential problem in biology and biological theories - theories have to respect the issue of time in a way that Physics and Mathematics cannot. This from Mayr :
'No biological problem is solved until both the
proximate and the evolutionary causation
has been elucidated. Furthermore, the study
of evolutionary causes is as legitimate a
part of biology as is the study of the usually
physico-chemical proximate causes'.
E. Mayr, 1982 (The Growth of Biological Thought)
It might seem that only the "physico-chemical proximate causes" in the "sthoola sareera" occupies minds other than those busying with finding ways to integrate evolution and development. Little or no room in any of this thinking for aspects of the"sookshma sareera" and certainly no room for tattva's / and 'avyaktha prakruti' & 'pancheekarana prakriya' derivations - and this is a major disconnect.
"Integrating evolution and development" is central to fully appreciate Ayurveda and its rich concepts (the origins of doshas and sub-doshas which is more difficut than appreciating dhatus and other concepts like mala and agni and ama and shrotas and others) ... For those wishing to explore further this important area here is a suggestion from Aldo Rinaldi
Integrating evolution and development: from theory to practice. Lamm E, Jablonka E.
Perspect Biol Med. 2008 Autumn;51(4):636-47.
The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Sciences and Ideas, Tel Aviv
University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. ehudlamm@post.tau.ac.il
This volume joins a growing list of books, monographs, and proceedings from
scientific meetings that attempt to consolidate the wide spectrum of approaches
emphasizing the role of development in evolution into a coherent and productive
synthesis, often called evo-devo. Evo-devo is seen as a replacement or amendment
of the modern synthesis that has dominated the field of evolution since the 1940s
and which, as even its architects confessed, was fundamentally incomplete because
development remained outside its theoretical framework (Mayr and Provine 1980).
As the volume attests, there is now a strong feeling that the time is ripe for
the consolidation of evo-devo, and that the field is mature enough so that
mapping the theoretical terrain and experimental approaches is both feasible and
scientifically productive. Now is an appropriate time to try to weave the strands
of reasoning leading to the developmental perspective and offer a synthesis.
[abstract of book review essay: of Roger Sansom and Robert N. Brandon, eds. "Integrating Evolution and Development: From Theory to
Practice." Cambridge:MIT Press (Bradford Books), 2007. Pp. xii + 334. $34 (paper).]
And for those who wish to continue even further there is more reading in three books:
Ernst Mayr warns us repeatedly about the essential problem in biology and biological theories - theories have to respect the issue of time in a way that Physics and Mathematics cannot. This from Mayr :
'No biological problem is solved until both the
proximate and the evolutionary causation
has been elucidated. Furthermore, the study
of evolutionary causes is as legitimate a
part of biology as is the study of the usually
physico-chemical proximate causes'.
E. Mayr, 1982 (The Growth of Biological Thought)
It might seem that only the "physico-chemical proximate causes" in the "sthoola sareera" occupies minds other than those busying with finding ways to integrate evolution and development. Little or no room in any of this thinking for aspects of the"sookshma sareera" and certainly no room for tattva's / and 'avyaktha prakruti' & 'pancheekarana prakriya' derivations - and this is a major disconnect.
"Integrating evolution and development" is central to fully appreciate Ayurveda and its rich concepts (the origins of doshas and sub-doshas which is more difficut than appreciating dhatus and other concepts like mala and agni and ama and shrotas and others) ... For those wishing to explore further this important area here is a suggestion from Aldo Rinaldi
Integrating evolution and development: from theory to practice. Lamm E, Jablonka E.
Perspect Biol Med. 2008 Autumn;51(4):636-47.
The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Sciences and Ideas, Tel Aviv
University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. ehudlamm@post.tau.ac.il
This volume joins a growing list of books, monographs, and proceedings from
scientific meetings that attempt to consolidate the wide spectrum of approaches
emphasizing the role of development in evolution into a coherent and productive
synthesis, often called evo-devo. Evo-devo is seen as a replacement or amendment
of the modern synthesis that has dominated the field of evolution since the 1940s
and which, as even its architects confessed, was fundamentally incomplete because
development remained outside its theoretical framework (Mayr and Provine 1980).
As the volume attests, there is now a strong feeling that the time is ripe for
the consolidation of evo-devo, and that the field is mature enough so that
mapping the theoretical terrain and experimental approaches is both feasible and
scientifically productive. Now is an appropriate time to try to weave the strands
of reasoning leading to the developmental perspective and offer a synthesis.
[abstract of book review essay: of Roger Sansom and Robert N. Brandon, eds. "Integrating Evolution and Development: From Theory to
Practice." Cambridge:MIT Press (Bradford Books), 2007. Pp. xii + 334. $34 (paper).]
And for those who wish to continue even further there is more reading in three books:
- Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb (1995). Epigenetic Inheritance and Evolution: the Lamarckian Dimension, Oxford University Press.
- Eytan Avital and Eva Jablonka. (2000) Animal Traditions: Behavioural Inheritance in Evolution. Cambridge University Press.
- Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb (2005) Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life. MIT Press.
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