Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2007 - Volume 30, Issue 04  

Open Peer Commentary

Evolution in the symbolic dimension: The devil is in the details

Susan Lappana1 and Jae Chun Choea1

a1 Department of EcoSciences, Ewha Womans University, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-750, Republic of Korea. lappan@nyu.edu jcchoe@ewha.ac.kr http://home.ewha.ac.kr/~behaveco

Abstract

Evolution in Four Dimensions argues convincingly that non-genetic inheritance systems have the potential to be agents of evolution and that, in some circumstances, acquired information can be heritable. However, we found the authors' four-dimensional approach to evolution problematic, and doubt that symbolic evolution can be adequately modeled as a distinct dimension of organismal evolution.

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