Who’s Skeptical of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis?

Is anyone here skeptical of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) in biology/biological sciences? If so, why? If not, why not?

Background: A couple of days ago I interviewed one of the participants in the Royal Society’s recent ‘New Trends’ meeting (audios now available), who is obviously pro-EES ,as part of a nearly completed research project from the past couple of years.

My interviewee gave the (ahem) ‘brilliant’ answer of a stone when asked to speak about ‘things that don’t evolve’ (one of those interviewer places where it’s really hard to mask a delighted smile with neutrality!) after claiming not to understand the question: “What are the limits of evolution as a scientific theory?” (we had already been discussing its ‘possibilities’ and I explained earlier that I would ask both about the possibilities and the limits of evolutionary theories). Undergrad students around the world chuckle when they hear the Rock answer (as if geological evolution doesn’t exist in the minds of biologists)!

It’s just a ‘play of scales,’ after all, that slips us into the ‘evolution of everything,’ don’t forget 😉

157 thoughts on “Who’s Skeptical of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis?

  1. Frankie: Your opinion isn’t science and all you have is your opinion. Please tell us how to test your opinion to see if it holds water.

    The point remains languages are designed by humans.

    Planned design?

  2. phoodoo: French, Spanish, Russian, English, Japanese, Creole, …There are many.

    Probably best for you to see if you can get one down first.

    As far as I know, the only natural language that could be said to be designed by humans, is Esperanto. And even that involved “stealing” a lot from actual natural languages.

    There have been other attempts to design languages, but they have all failed. Unless, of course, you are talking of formal languages (such as computer languages).

  3. newton: Planned design?

    Yes definitions are planned and agreed upon. And you cannot have a language without defining the words.

  4. Neil Rickert: As far as I know, the only natural language that could be said to be designed by humans, is Esperanto.And even that involved “stealing” a lot from actual natural languages.

    There have been other attempts to design languages, but they have all failed.Unless, of course, you are talking of formal languages (such as computer languages).

    Every language humans have used and use was designed by humans

  5. Frankie: Every language humans have used and use was designed by humans.

    Depending what you mean by “designed”, that could be true. But if you mean by “designed” there is some sort of plan, then, no. Language development is anarchic, however much linguists and grammarians wish it were otherwise.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.