The Role of Information in Evolutionary Biology

Acta Biotheor. 2023 May 15;71(3):17. doi: 10.1007/s10441-023-09468-4.ABSTRACTThe Modern Synthesis has received criticism for its purported gene-centrism. That criticism relies on a concept of the gene as a unit of instructional information. In this paper I discuss information concepts and endorse one, developed from Floridi, that sees information as a functional relationship between data and context. I use this concept to inspect developmental criticisms of the Modern Synthesis and argue that the instructional gene arose as an idealization practice when evolutionary biologists made comment on development. However, a closer inspection of key claims shows that at least some associated with the Modern Synthesis were in fact adopting the data led definition I favour and made clear arguments for the role of developmental processes beyond genetic input. There was no instructional gene.PMID:37184719 | PMC:PMC10185631 | DOI:10.1007/s10441-023-09468-4
Source: Acta Biotheoretica - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research