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Title: Dept Sem: Paul Griffiths
Title: Lehrman’s dictum: Information and explanation in biology
Abstract
Developmental psychobiologist Daniel S. Lehrman wrote that, “although the
idea that behavior patterns are ‘blueprinted’ or ‘encoded’ in the genome is
a perfectly appropriate and instructive way of talking about certain
problems of genetics and evolution, it does not in any way deal with the
kinds of questions about behavioral development to which it is so often
applied.” (Lehrman, 1970: 35). According to Lehrman, it is legitimate to
regard the genome as a means for the transmission of information from
parent to offspring, but not to explain the development of phenotypic
traits as the expression of genetic information. There is something prima
facie puzzling about this claim– if the reason offspring resemble their
parents is the transmission of information, then surely that information
explains the development of the trait in the offspring?
Lehrman’s dictum has recently been challenged by philosopher of biology
Nicholas Shea, who argues explicitly that the information transmitted from
parent to offspring in the genome is also ‘read in development’ and that
the inheritance of this information explains developmental outcomes (Shea
2007, In Press). Although Shea’s ‘infotel semantics’ is a significant
advance on previous attempts to use the idea of information to analyse the
relationship between evolutionary and developmental explanations, it does
not support the idea that inherited information is ‘read in development’.
Lehrman is still right on this matter.
When: Wed 14 Sep 15:30 – 17:30 Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney
Where: The Refectory, Main Quad, The University of Sydney
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