On the necessity of a systems theory of evolution and its population biologic foundation: Comments on Dr. Regelmann's article
✍ Scribed by G.P. Wagner
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1983
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 191 KB
- Volume
- 32
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0001-5342
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In a recent paper in this journal, P.-J. Regelmann (1982) discussed the relationship between functional and historical biology. In the subtitle the main message is summarized: The inadequatenes of a system theory of evolution. The present commentary does not question the details of the philosophical reflections on Kant, Hegel, Max Hartmann and Bertalanffy, which constitute the main body of Regelmann's paper. It is also not intended to defend any kind of theory that is labeled with the term 'system theory of evolution', but calls in question the misleading notion that every systems approach is indirectly Lamarckian and therefore incompatible with the synthetic theory of evolution (p. 226).
The fallacy in Regelmann's argumentation is to identify the late Bertalanffyan theories with contemporary systems theories of evolution. Besides the two authors cited by Regelmann, namely Riedl and Wuketits, many more authors have contributed to a systems approach to evolution and its population biological foundation. The main contributions are: