Cargando…
The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction
In this article we analyse the issue of what accounts for developmental potential, i.e., the possible phenotypes a developing organism can manifest during ontogeny. We shall argue in favour of two theses. First, although the developing organism is the unit of development, the complete causal basis f...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Netherlands
2023
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9886630/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36715846 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10441-023-09456-8 |
_version_ | 1784880171869798400 |
---|---|
author | Vecchi, Davide Santos, Gil |
author_facet | Vecchi, Davide Santos, Gil |
author_sort | Vecchi, Davide |
collection | PubMed |
description | In this article we analyse the issue of what accounts for developmental potential, i.e., the possible phenotypes a developing organism can manifest during ontogeny. We shall argue in favour of two theses. First, although the developing organism is the unit of development, the complete causal basis for its potential to develop does neither lie entirely in itself as a whole nor in any specific part of itself (such as its genome). Thus, the extra-organismal environment must be counted as one of the three necessary, partial and complementary causal bases for development potential. Secondly, we shall defend a constructivist view of the developmental process. If the genome, the developing organism and the extra-organismal environment are to be counted as proper elements of the causal basis for an organism’s developmental potential, the latter is not a given. Rather, it is the result of an interaction-based construction, a process sometimes generating genuine developmental novelty. We will thus argue for an interactionist multi-causal basis view of developmental potential construction. We contend that our view provides a biologically tenable and metaphysically coherent account of developmental dynamics. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9886630 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Springer Netherlands |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-98866302023-02-01 The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction Vecchi, Davide Santos, Gil Acta Biotheor Regular Article In this article we analyse the issue of what accounts for developmental potential, i.e., the possible phenotypes a developing organism can manifest during ontogeny. We shall argue in favour of two theses. First, although the developing organism is the unit of development, the complete causal basis for its potential to develop does neither lie entirely in itself as a whole nor in any specific part of itself (such as its genome). Thus, the extra-organismal environment must be counted as one of the three necessary, partial and complementary causal bases for development potential. Secondly, we shall defend a constructivist view of the developmental process. If the genome, the developing organism and the extra-organismal environment are to be counted as proper elements of the causal basis for an organism’s developmental potential, the latter is not a given. Rather, it is the result of an interaction-based construction, a process sometimes generating genuine developmental novelty. We will thus argue for an interactionist multi-causal basis view of developmental potential construction. We contend that our view provides a biologically tenable and metaphysically coherent account of developmental dynamics. Springer Netherlands 2023-01-30 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC9886630/ /pubmed/36715846 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10441-023-09456-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Regular Article Vecchi, Davide Santos, Gil The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction |
title | The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction |
title_full | The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction |
title_fullStr | The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction |
title_full_unstemmed | The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction |
title_short | The Multi-Causal Basis of Developmental Potential Construction |
title_sort | multi-causal basis of developmental potential construction |
topic | Regular Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9886630/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36715846 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10441-023-09456-8 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT vecchidavide themulticausalbasisofdevelopmentalpotentialconstruction AT santosgil themulticausalbasisofdevelopmentalpotentialconstruction AT vecchidavide multicausalbasisofdevelopmentalpotentialconstruction AT santosgil multicausalbasisofdevelopmentalpotentialconstruction |