The Lawrence Jacobsen Library
Books Received (Primate-Science/PrimateLit)

EVOLUTION IN FOUR DIMENSIONS: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life

By Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb


MIT Press


FROM THE PUBLISHER


Our understanding of how evolution works is undergoing a revolution. For the 
past fifty years, explanations of evolution based on gene-centered heredity 
dominated all evolutionary thought. The quest to map the human genome was 
linked to a "once and for all" explanation of how we evolved and how our 
genetic map would provide unlimited and definite knowledge of our biological 
self. Many claimed that once the human genome map was in place, we would be 
able to isolate the gene for adventure, the gene for strength, and the gene 
for evil (among others) and we would "know it all." However, the real result 
of the successful mapping of the human genome is a fundamental challenge to 
this gene-centered version of Darwinian theory according to which adaptation 
occurs only through natural selection of chance DNA variations. In Evolution 
in Four Dimensions: Genetic Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation 
in the History of Life, Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb argue that there is 
more to heredity than genes. They find that the real result of the 
successful mapping of the human genome is a fundamental challenge to our 
gene-centered heredity explanation of evolution. The gene is but one element 
of an enormously complex system and much more research is needed in order to 
truly understand our biological self and the mechanisms of evolution.


ABOUT THE AUTHORS


Eva Jablonka is Professor at the Cohn Institute for the History and 
Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University. Marion J. Lamb was 
Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London, before her 
retirement. Jablonka and Lamb have collaborated on a number of journal 
articles and books, including Epigenetic Inheritance and Evolution.



TABLE OF CONTENTS


Acknowledgments ix


Prologue 1


I.  The First Dimension 5


1. The Transformations of Darwinism 9


2. From Genes to Characters 47


3. Genetic Variation: Blind, Directed, Interpretive? 79


II. Three More Dimensions 109


4.  The Epigenetic Inheritance Systems 113


5.  The Behavioral Inheritance Systems 155


6.  The Symbolic Inheritance System 193


Between the Acts: An Interim Summary 233


III. Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again 239


7.  Interacting Dimensions-Genes and Epigenetic Systems 245


viii Contents


8.  Genes and Behavior, Genes and Language 285


9.  Lamarckism Evolving: The Evolution of the Educated Guess 319


10.  A Last Dialogue 355


Notes 385


Bibliography 417


Index 447


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HOW TO ORDER


$34.95


ISBN 0-262-10107-6


MIT Press


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Cambridge, MA


02142-1493


800.356.0343


mitpress-orders@mit.edu


http://mitpress.mit.edu/



Posted Date: 6 May 2005