This is not a book designed to
appeal to the casual reader.  Most, if not all, of the issues that concern the
book’s contributors are domain-specific €“ that is, a substantial degree of
knowledge about the more subtle aspects of evolutionary theory (esp. the Modern
Synthesis) is presumed.  The general reader will may find this collection
challenging.  And yet, that said, simply playing with the ideas and nuances of
the various ideas in this book, readers of differing backgrounds may find out
that they can expand their notions of what evolutionary theory €“ standard or
synthesized €“ is all about.

It should be noted at the start
that JM Baldwin was not some minor character of a now-dusty past.  Despite
academia’s tendency to associate Baldwin’s ideas with the repeatedly-discredited
Lamarckian ideas of previous century, James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934) was
undoubtedly an important pioneer in the field of developmental psychology.  The
value of his theorizing, as well as that of his contemporary, Lloyd Morgan, has
been roundly discounted by respected scholars only to be more recently
resurrected by scientists and philosophers for their own purposes.

A founding member of the American
Psychological Association in 1892, he became its sixth President in 1897, and
was a founder of the journal Psychological Review as well.  Most relevant
to current interest in his work, Baldwin became known within psychological
circles for his attempts to apply the relatively new theory of evolution to the
development of infants and children.

In addition to (or perhaps in spite
of) his association with Larmarckism, Baldwin was a well-respected psychologist
and a major proponent of experimental psychology in the U.S. in his time,
especially promoting research involving child development.  (His experiments
with children included work with his own daughter, Elizabeth.)  Baldwin
maintained, as did the major advocates of behaviorism in those times, that the
experimental method, relatively new to psychology, could and should be applied
in the field of child development.  However, Baldwin reached substantially
different conclusions about human nature than did the behaviorists.  While
major figures such as J.B. Watson refused to consider "the mind" as
relevant to human development (see e.g., Baldwin, 1930) at all, Baldwin himself
decided that the mind is central to development.  The importance of the concept
of mind is obvious in much of his work, including a book he specifically
titled, The Story of the Mind, (New York: D. Appleton and Company,
1905).

The very term, "The Baldwin
Effect," has often been taken simply to imply (in a Lamarckian fashion)
that what is learned by one generation can change the evolutionary processes
leading to subsequent generations.  As one of the editors of this volume
describes it, "The general thrust of the idea is [that] under some
conditions, learned behaviors can affect the direction and rate of evolutionary
change by natural selection" (p. 3).

However, it never occurred to
Baldwin himself that his theories might be seen as contradicting or
fundamentally challenging Darwinian evolutionary theory (as it was then
conceived); he believed his thoughts complemented Darwin’s.  However, in part
because Baldwin’s theory later became associated with the by-then discredited
Lamarckian theory, it was discounted by well-respected thinkers of the
post-Modern Synthesis era such as Dobzhansky and Mayr.  (It should be noted,
however, that Julian Huxley, who helped introduce what is known as the Modern
Synthesis in the early 1940s, was in general agreement with the possibility of
a so-called Baldwin Effect; see Huxley, J., Evolution: The Modern Synthesis.
London: George Allen & Unwin, 1942.)

While it might seem Lamarckian at
first blush (e.g., a baby giraffe’s neck is lengthened due to of the neck-stretching
of her parents), it involves a much more precise and complex set of ideas. 
Although a summary of these ideas can only be inadequate, it might go like
this:

  1.  The initially random
behaviors of individuals in their environments can be selectively reinforced due to
environmental conditions €“ a process that Baldwin called "ontogenetic
adaptation."

  2.  These adaptations can
shape inherited instincts to coincide with the relevant environmental
conditions.

  3.  These adaptations
further improve the organisms’ likelihood of survival and procreation in
their particular niches.

  4.  In some (presumably more
advanced) species, ontogenetic adaptations can further be culturally enhanced,
and indeed these enhancements can continue to appear until "germinal
elements" happen to coincide with their presence and influence them to "turn
into congenital instincts" (p. 7).

It is, again, noteworthy to
remember that Baldwin considered himself a true Darwinian, and none of this
process was thought to in any way distract from or interfere with the processes
of Darwin’s understanding of natural selection.  However, the author of one
chapter, Stephen Downes, also points out that Baldwin was also "an
unabashed progressivist," meaning that he saw "the perfection of the
human mind and brain to the be culmination of evolution€¦was interested in promoting
the role of conscious intelligence in directing evolution without collapsing
into a Lamarckian view" (p. 37).

The current volume, Evolution
and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered, collects a variety of
opinions from scholars and scientists about the meaning and current value of Baldwin’s
ideas.  According to the editors, "One goal of this volume is to bring
together historical and philosophical analyses of what was originally proposed,
how it was modified and redefined over time, and what it might mean in
contemporary evolutionary theory" (p. ix).

Because of this approach, there is really no main
consensus around which to gather the various articles, and the editors divided
the book divided the contributions into three main sections:  "Baldwin
Boosters and Baldwin Skeptics," in which the primary focus is simply
whether or not there is anything of value in Baldwin’s work worth carrying
forward; "Baldwinism and Development," in which the Baldwin’s work on
development is reviewed and critiqued; and "Beyond Baldwinism," in
which the Baldwin’s work is updated with what has been learned since his time
about mechanisms from molecular to behavioral.

Because of the (perhaps somewhat
unexpected) popularity among lay readers of his most recent book (Freedom
Evolves, New York: Viking Books, 2003), it is also worth mentioning that
among the many contributors to the current volume is the American philosopher
Daniel Dennett, author of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (New York:  Simon
& Schuster, 1995) (and other works supportive of Baldwin’s ideas, such as Consciousness
Explained, New York: Little Brown & Co., 1991), who perceives the
Baldwin Effect as part and parcel of the process of evolution.  In fact,
Dennett is featured in two chapters in Evolution and Learning; in one of
these chapters he is sole author, and in another he provides one thread of a
three-way conversation (debate?). 

In summary, this is a very useful
collection of essays for those who do not yet believe that all the arguments
about specific evolutionary processes have been settled.  For the casual
reader, much of the subtlety of the debates will be difficult to follow.

 

Link: 

·       
Review of Freedom
Evolves by Daniel C. Dennett by George Graham, Ph.D. on Jun 17th 2003

 

© 2004 Keith Harris

Keith Harris, Ph.D.,
is a clinical psychologist and supervises the research section of the
Department of Behavioral Health, San Bernardino County, California. His
interests include the empirical basis for psychotherapy research (and its
design), human decision-making processes, and the shaping of human nature by
evolutionary forces.

Categories: Genetics, Psychology