Description
Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to say that mutation is random? How does mutation influence evolution? Are mutations merely the raw material for selection to shape adaptations? The author draws on a detailed knowledge of mutational mechanisms to argue that the randomness doctrine is best understood, not as a fact-based conclusion, but as the premise of a neo-Darwinian research program focused on selection. The successes of this research program created a blind spot - in mathematical models and verbal theories of causation - that has stymied efforts to re-think the role of variation. However, recent theoretical and empirical work shows that mutational biases can and do influence the course of evolution, including adaptive evolution, through a first come, first served mechanism.This thought-provoking book cuts through the conceptual tangle at the intersection of mutation, randomness, and evolution, offering a fresh, far-reaching, and testable view of the role of variation as a dispositional evolutiona
Table of Contents1: Introduction: A Curious Disconnect 2: Ordinary Randomness 3: Practical Randomness 4: Evolutionary Randomness 5: Mutational Mechanisms and Evolvability 6: Randomness as Irrelevance 7: The Problem of Variation 8: Climbing Mount Probable 9: The Revolt of the Clay 10: Moving On Appendix A: Mutation Exemplars Appendix B: Counting the Universe of Mutations Appendix C: Randomness Quotations Appendix D: Irrelevance Quotations
