Mass Extinctions as Major Transitions
Currie, AM
Date: 3 April 2019
Article
Journal
Biology and Philosophy
Publisher
Springer
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Both paleobiology and investigations of ‘major evolutionary transitions’ are intimately
concerned with the macroevolutionary shape of life. It is surprising, then, how little
paleontological perspectives and evidence inform studies of major transitions. I argue that this
disconnect is partially justified because paleobiological ...
Both paleobiology and investigations of ‘major evolutionary transitions’ are intimately
concerned with the macroevolutionary shape of life. It is surprising, then, how little
paleontological perspectives and evidence inform studies of major transitions. I argue that this
disconnect is partially justified because paleobiological investigation is typically ‘phenomena-led’,
while investigations of major transitions (at least as commonly understood) are ‘theory-led’. The
distinction turns on evidential relevance: in the former case, evidence is relevant in virtue of its
relationship to some phenomena or hypotheses that concern those phenomena; in the latter,
evidence is relevant in virtue of providing insights into, or tests of, an abstract body of theory.
Because paleobiological data is by-and-large irrelevant to the theory which underwrites the
traditional conception of major transitions, it is of limited use to that research program. I suggest
that although the traditional conception of major transitions is neither ad-hoc or problematically
incomplete, its promise of providing unificatory explanations of the transitions is unlikely to be
kept. Further, examining paleobiological investigations of mass extinctions and organogenesis, I
further argue that (1) whether or not transitions in paleobiology count as ‘major’ turns on how
we conceive of major transitions (that is, the notion is sensitive to investigative context); (2)
although major transitions potentially have a unified theoretical basis, recent developments
suggest that investigations are becoming increasingly phenomena-led; (3) adopting phenomenaled investigations maximizes the evidence available to paleobiologists.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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