Synthetic Theory of Evolution, History of

Author(s):  
N.A. Johnson
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-371
Author(s):  
Mikhail B. Konashev

Th. Dobzhansky played a special role in the reception and development of the “synthetic theory of evolution,” as well as in the establishment of scientific connections between Soviet and U.S. evolutionists, and first and foremost, geneticists. These connections greatly influenced the development of Soviet genetics, of evolutionary theory and evolutionary biology as a whole, and in particular the restoration of Soviet genetics in the late 1960s. A discussion of Dobzhansky’s correspondence and collaboration with colleagues in his native country, moreover, allows for an improved understanding of the complex and dramatic history of Soviet genetics and evolutionary theory. It also provides novel insights into the interactions between scientists and authorities in the Soviet Union (USSR).


Author(s):  
Yu. V. Vagyn

The process of combining Darwinism and genetics, which entered the history of biology as a synthetic theory of evolution, is considered.Key words: synthetic theory of evolution, neo-Darwinism, the concept of a biological species, population genetics, genetic polymorphism, the theory of dominance, gene drift.


2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 671-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edson Perreira da Silva

The history of the Theory of Evolution has been told a number of times by historians, philosophers, professors, writers, scientists and so on. However, many of these versions differ from or even contradict one another. In this article, the history of the Theory of Evolution is retold according to a dialectical-materialistic perspective. It analyzes the historical contradictions between Darwinian evolution theory and Mendel's model, the background that led to the synthetic theory of evolution, the debate carried out by classic schools and the result of synthesis, as well as the still current debate between Neutralism and Selectionism. Finally, it also discusses the interpretative model used ("an idiosyncratic dialectic materialism"), mainly in relation with Popper's and Kuhn's models.


Author(s):  
Francisco J. Ayala ◽  
Camilo J. Cela-Conde

This chapter starts with the general principles of the theory of evolution by natural selection advanced by Darwin and the Mendelian theory of heredity. Next comes consideration of the “new-Darwinian synthesis” or “synthetic theory,” which integrates both precedents into what has become the current paradigm of the life sciences. Molecular evolution and population genetics follow, including epigenetic processes. Next, special models of selection are considered, such as sexual selection and the models that account for altruistic behavior. After the mechanisms of speciation, the main concepts of systematics are explored, which facilitate understanding of different traits. The chapter finally explores the fundamental concepts of taxonomy and the methods from phenetics to cladistics, that makes it possible to evaluate the diversity of organisms and the methods for dating the fossil record.


2002 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 97-118
Author(s):  
Charles R. Marshall

Ever since Darwin proposed his theory of evolution (or more correctly, theories; see Mayr, 1991) it has been assumed that intermediates now extinct once existed between living species. For some, the hunt for these so-called missing links in the fossil record became an obsession, a search for evidence thought needed to establish the veracity of evolutionary theory. Few modern paleontologists, however, search explicitly for ancestors in the fossil record because we now know that fossils can be used to chart the order of evolution regardless of whether they are directly ancestral either to extinct organisms or to those living today.


2008 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 78-87
Author(s):  
Vesa Iitti

This article focuses on the general history of the Fourth Way in Finland. The Fourth Way, or simply ‘the Work’, began as a Greco-Armenian man named Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1866?–1949) gathered groups of pupils in St Petersburg and Moscow in 1912. To these groups, Gurdjieff started to teach what he had learned and synthesized between ca 1896 and 1912 during his travels on spiritual search of Egypt, Crete, Sumeria, Assyria, the Holy Land, Mecca, Ethiopia, Sudan, India, Afghanistan, the northern valleys of Siberia, and Tibet. Neither Gurdjieff nor any of his disciples called themselves a church, a sect, or anything alike, but referred to themselves simply as ‘the Work’, or as ‘the Fourth Way’. The name ‘the Fourth Way’ originates in a Gurdjieffian view that there are essentially three traditional ways of spiritual work: those of a monk, a fakir, and a yogi. These ways do not literally refer to the activities of a monk, a fakir, and a yogi, but to similar types of spiritual work emphasizing exercise of emotion, body, or mind. Gurdjieff’s teaching is a blend of various influences that include Suf­ism, orthodox Christianity, Buddhism, Kabbalah, and general elem­ents of various occult teachings of both the East and the West. Gurdjieff’s teaching is a blend of various influences that include Suf­ism, orthodox Christianity, Buddhism, Kabbalah, and general elem­ents of various occult teachings of both the East and the West. It is a unique combination of cosmology, psychology, theory of evolution, and overall theory and practise aiming to help individ­uals in their efforts towards what is called ‘self-remembering’.  


Author(s):  
R. P. Piskun ◽  
V. M. Shkarupa ◽  
I. M. Molchan ◽  
K. V. Musatova ◽  
N. M. Hrynchak

Aim. As the genetic code is actually a protein’s code so still leaves in the shade the answer to the question that is our aim. Why in the certain time, in the right place happens the proper phenomenon during the formation of various configurations of cells, organs and organisms. Methods. Studying and analyzing the various scientific literature, we sought to theoretically give an answer to this question. Results. Synthetic theory of evolution is considering genome as a passive structure that encodes and transmits accidentally arising variations of genotypes. However, in recent years become more known the facts that indicate the genome is an active system that self-regulated and self-organized. The genome includes not only the material for evolution, but the mechanisms of its application for the creation of new genotypes and phenotypes in the future for active participation in the process of their own evolution. The modern scientific data confirm that most evolutionarily success is the genome that is capable of change. This means that in the genome there are mechanisms that control and create diverse and concerted restructuring of DNA. Conclusions. Evolution is the continuous development in which organisms survive. The evolution is typical for all levels of nature. The main active factors of evolution are a mutation, a recombination, a hybridization and a transgenesis. Keywords: evolution, genes, factors, history.


Author(s):  
Mona Sue Weissmark

This introductory chapter traces the history of ideas about race and human classification systems, from the bible to the Classical period and on to the first “scientific” attempts to rank differences and ascribe characteristics to races. Starting with the view from the Tower of Babel came the notion that linguistic and cultural diversity was the Supreme Being’s punitive response to such human hubris of reaching for heaven on earth. Following that came a litany of scholars, scientists, and doctors, who established hierarchies that left white Europeans on the top of the intellectual period, and other races lagging behind. Among these was Hippocrates, who wrote that the forms and dispositions of human beings corresponded with the nature of the country, their region’s climate and topography. Meanwhile, the French physician Francois Bernier developed the first post-Classical racial classification system, basing it on physical attributes. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach was the first phrenologist, and although he also classified race, he asserted that all races belonged to a single species. Physician George Morton measured cranial size and then estimated brain size in an effort to rank humans based on intelligence. The chapter then looks at more modern concepts, such as Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution; scientific rejection of the notion that races were biologically different; and UNESCO’s statement that social issues give rise to racism.


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