Foreword	6
	Carving Nature at its Joints?	6
	Contents	9
	Contributors	11
	Introduction	12
	1.1 Molecular Biology Meets Evolutionary Biology: Challenges to Post- Mayrian Biology	12
	1.2 Elaborating Key Concepts	18
	1.3 Detailed Contents of this Book	22
	Articulating Different Modes of Explanation: The Present Boundary in Biological Research	25
	2.1 Introduction	25
	2.2 Molecular Explanatory Models	26
	2.3 Putting These Models Side by Side or Opposing Them is a Dead- End	28
	2.4 The Difficulty of Interlinking Different Explanations	32
	2.5 A Paradoxical Conclusion	34
	Compromising Positions: The Minding of Matter	37
	3.1 TheWord	37
	3.2	38
	Four Themes	38
	3.3 Serving Two Masters: Minding Matter	46
	3.4 Conclusion	53
	Abstractions, Idealizations, and Evolutionary Biology	56
	4.1 Introduction	56
	4.2 Idealization and Abstraction	56
	4.3 Successes and Pitfalls	60
	4.4 The Informational Gene	62
	The Adequacy of Model Systems for Evo-Devo: Modeling the Formation of Organisms/ Modeling the Formation of Society	65
	5.1 Introduction	65
	5.2 New Model Systems for Evo-Devo	68
	5.3 Model Systems and the Assumptions of Developmental and Evolutionary Biology	74
	Niche Construction in Evolution, Ecosystems and Developmental Biology	77
	6.1 Introduction	77
	6.2 Niche Construction	78
	6.3 Earthworms	82
	6.4 Other Examples	83
	6.5 The Limitations of the Standard Theory	84
	6.6 Extended Evolutionary Theory	87
	6.7 Modelling Niche Construction	88
	6.8 The Implications of Niche Construction for Ecology	89
	6.9 A Simple Model of an Ecosystem	90
	6.10 Ecosystems and Evolution Without Niche Construction	92
	6.11 Ecosystems and Evolution with Niche Construction	93
	6.12 EMGAs	95
	6.13 Integrating Ecology and Evolution	95
	6.14 Niche Construction and Developmental Biology	96
	6.15 Gene Networks in Development and Ecosystems	98
	Novelty, Plasticity and Niche Construction: The Influence of Phenotypic Variation on Evolution	100
	7.1 Where Does Novelty Come From? A Hypothesis	100
	7.2 Biased Variation and Evolution	102
	7.3 Phenotypic Plasticity and its Significance	104
	7.4 The Organism-Environment Developmental Loop	110
	The Evolution of Complexity	117
	8.1 The Arrow of Complexity Hypothesis	118
	8.2 Replaying the Tape of Life	119
	8.3 Complexity Growth by Passive Diffusion	121
	8.4 The Evolution of Complexity in Artificial Life Models	123
	8.5 Objections and Replies	128
	8.6 Conclusions	136
	Self-Organization, Self-Assembly, and the Origin of Life	137
	9.1 Introduction	137
	9.2 The Origin of Life in Four Acts	139
	9.3 The Gospel of Inevitability	141
	Self-Organization and Complexity in Evolutionary Theory, or, in this Life the Bread Always Falls Jammy Side Down	147
	10.1 What is Life?	148
	10.2 Organization	150
	10.3 Is Natural Selection All-Powerful?	152
	10.4 Constraints	154
	10.5 Order for free	157
	10.6 Conclusion	160
	References	161
	Index	176