Inheritance Systems and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

Current knowledge of the genetic, epigenetic, behavioural and symbolic systems of inheritance challenges the gene-based, 'Modern Synthesis' version of Darwin's evolutionary theory. The implications of a broad view of heredity are discussed and its theoretical and philosophical ramifications are examined.

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Current knowledge of the genetic, epigenetic, behavioural and symbolic systems of inheritance requires a revision and extension of the mid-twentieth-century, gene-based, 'Modern Synthesis' version of Darwinian evolutionary theory. We present the case for this by first outlining the history that led to the neo-Darwinian view of evolution. In the second section we describe and compare different types of inheritance, and in the third discuss the implications of a broad view of heredity for various aspects of evolutionary theory. We end with an examination of the philosophical and conceptual ramifications of evolutionary thinking that incorporates multiple inheritance systems.