Behaviour, Development and Evolution E-Book

Patrick Bateson

• Herausgeber: Open Book Publishers
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

The role of parents in shaping the characters of their children, the causes of violence and crime, and the roots of personal unhappiness are central to humanity. Like so many fundamental questions about human existence, these issues all relate to behavioural development. In this lucid and accessible book, eminent biologist Professor Sir Patrick Bateson suggests that the nature/nurture dichotomy we often use to think about questions of development in both humans and animals is misleading. Instead, he argues that we should pay attention to whole systems, rather than to simple causes, when trying to understand the complexity of development.In his wide-ranging approach Bateson discusses why so much behaviour appears to be well-designed. He explores issues such as ‘imprinting’ and its importance to the attachment of offspring to their parents; the mutual benefits that characterise communication between parent and offspring; the importance of play in learning how to choose and control the optimal conditions in which to thrive; and the vital function of adaptability in the interplay between development and evolution.Bateson disputes the idea that a simple link can be found between genetics and behaviour. What an individual human or animal does in its life depends on the reciprocal nature of its relationships with the world about it. This knowledge also points to ways in which an animal’s own behaviour can provide the variation that influences the subsequent course of evolution.This has relevance not only for our scientific approaches to the systems of development and evolution, but also on how humans change institutional rules that have become dysfunctional, or design public health measures when mismatches occur between themselves and their environments. It affects how we think about ourselves and our own capacity for change.

Leseprobe

BEHAVIOUR, DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION

Behaviour, Development and Evolution

Patrick Bateson

https://www.openbookpublishers.com

© 2017 Patrick Bateson

The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for non-commercial purposes, providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:

Bateson, Patrick, Behaviour, Development and Evolution. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0097

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All external links were active on 20/2/2017 unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web

Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/490#resources

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ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-248-6

ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-249-3

ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-250-9

ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-251-6

ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-252-3

DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0097

Cover image: Johannes Itten, ‘Cerchi’ (1916) © Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, all rights reserved. Su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e Ambientali e del Turismo. Photo by Anna Gatti.

All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), and PEFC (Programme for the endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) Certified.

Printed in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia by Lightning Source for Open Book Publishers (Cambridge, UK).

Contents

Preface

1

1.

Appearance of Design

9

Design of machines

12

Conflicts in motivation

15

Conclusions

17

2.

Imprinting and Attachment

19

Attachment in humans

21

Imprinting in the wild

22

Individual recognition

24

Conclusions

25

3.

Rules and Reciprocity

27

Models of development

28

Alternative pathways

31

Rules for changing the rules

33

Coordination in development

35

Conclusions

36

4.

Discontinuities in Development

39

Loss of continuity

43

Conclusions

45

5.

Early Experience and Later Behaviour

47

Washing the brain

50

Neurobiology

53

Continuity and change

54

Conclusions

55

6.

Communication between Parents and Offspring

57

Parents and offspring

61

Conclusions

66

7.

Avoiding Inbreeding and Incest

67

Early experience and sexual attraction

72

Incest taboos

73

Conclusions

75

8.

Genes in Development and Evolution

77

Genes in development

79

Heritability

82

Epigenetics

84

Selfish genes

87

Conclusions

89

9.

Active Role of Behaviour

91

Environmental change

97

Conclusions

99

10.

Adaptability in Evolution

101

Behaviour and evolution

106

Conclusions

113

11.

Concluding Remarks

115

Index

121

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Preface

© 2017 Patrick Bateson, CC BY 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0097.12

The effectiveness of education, the role of parents in shaping the characters of their children, the causes of violence and crime, and the roots of personal unhappiness are matters that are central to humanity. Like so many other fundamental issues about human existence, they all relate to behavioural development. The catalogue continues. Do bad experiences in early life have a lasting effect? Is intelligence inherited? Can adults change their attitudes and behaviour? When faced with such questions, many people want simple answers. They want to know what really makes the difference.