Editing Baldwin effect (section)

==Controversy and acceptance==

Initially Baldwin's ideas were not incompatible with the prevailing, but uncertain, ideas about the mechanism of transmission of hereditary information and at least two other biologists put forward very similar ideas in 1896.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morgan |first=C. L. |author-link=C. Lloyd Morgan |year=1896 |title=On modification and variation |journal=Science |volume=4 |issue=99 |pages=733–740 |doi=10.1126/science.4.99.733|pmid=17735249 |bibcode=1896Sci.....4..733L |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448227 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Osborne |first=H. F. |author-link=Henry Fairfield Osborne |year=1896 |title=Ontogenic and phylogenic variation |journal=Science |volume=4|issue=100 |pages=786–789 |doi=10.1126/science.4.100.786|pmid=17734840 |bibcode=1896Sci.....4..786O |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448151 }}</ref> In 1901, [[Maurice Maeterlinck]] referred to behavioural adaptations to prevailing climates in different species of bees as "what had merely been an idea, therefore, and opposed to instinct, has thus by slow degrees become an instinctive habit".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Life of the Bee |last=Materlinck |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Maeterlinck |publisher=Dodd, Mead and Co. |year=1901 |pages=Chapter VII section 102}}</ref> The Baldwin effect theory subsequently became more controversial, with scholars divided between "Baldwin boosters" and "Baldwin skeptics".<ref name="depew03">Depew, David J. (2003), "Baldwin Boosters, Baldwin Skeptics" in: {{cite book |last1=Weber |first1=Bruce H. |first2=David J. |last2=Depew |title=Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered |year=2003 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-23229-6 |pages=3–31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBtRzBilw1MC&pg=PR9}}</ref> The theory was first called the "Baldwin effect" by [[George Gaylord Simpson]] in 1953.<ref name="depew03"/> Simpson "admitted that the idea was theoretically consistent, that is, not inconsistent with the [[Modern synthesis (20th century)|modern synthesis]]",<ref name="depew03"/> but he doubted that the phenomenon occurred very often, or if so, could be proven to occur. In his discussion of the reception of the Baldwin-effect theory Simpson points out that the theory appears to provide a reconciliation between a neo-Darwinian and a [[Lamarckism|neo-Lamarckian]] approach and that "Mendelism and later genetic theory so conclusively ruled out the extreme neo-Lamarckian position that reconciliation came to seem unnecessary".{{sfn|Simpson|1953}} In 1942, the evolutionary biologist [[Julian Huxley]] promoted the Baldwin effect as part of the modern synthesis, saying the concept had been unduly neglected by evolutionists.{{sfn|Simpson|1953}}<!--<ref name=Julian1942>{{cite book | author-link=Julian Huxley |last=Huxley |first=Julian |year=1942 |title=Evolution: The Modern Synthesis |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |title-link=Evolution: The Modern Synthesis}}</ref>--><ref name="Scheiner 2014">{{cite journal |last=Scheiner |first=Samuel M. |title=The Baldwin Effect: Neglected and Misunderstood |journal=The American Naturalist |publisher=University of Chicago Press |volume=184 |issue=4 | year=2014 |issn=0003-0147 |doi=10.1086/677944 |pages=ii–iii|pmid=25354416 |bibcode=2014ANat..184D...2S |s2cid=9214778 }}</ref><ref name="Belew 2018">{{cite book |last=Belew |first=Richard K. |title=Adaptive Individuals In Evolving Populations: Models And Algorithms |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tcTADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |year=2018 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-429-97145-7 |page=100}}</ref>

In the 1960s, the evolutionary biologist [[Ernst Mayr]] contended that the Baldwin effect theory was untenable because
# the argument is stated in terms of the individual genotype, whereas what is really exposed to the selection pressure is a phenotypically and genetically variable population;
# it is not sufficiently emphasized that the degree of modification of the phenotype is in itself genetically controlled;
# it is assumed that phenotypic rigidity is selectively superior to phenotypic flexibility.<ref name="Mayr1963">{{cite book |last=Mayr |first=Ernst |author-link=Ernst Mayr |year=1963 |title=Animal Species and Evolution| url=https://archive.org/details/animalspeciesevo00mayr | url-access=registration |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03750-2}}</ref>

In 1987 [[Geoffrey Hinton]] and Steven Nowlan demonstrated by computer simulation that learning can accelerate evolution, and they associated this with the Baldwin effect.<ref>{{cite journal |title=How learning can guide evolution |last1=Hinton |first1=Geoffrey E. |author-link=Geoffrey Hinton |last2=Nowlan |first2=Steven J. |year=1987 |journal=Complex Systems |volume=1 |pages=495–502}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=When learning guides evolution|author-link=John Maynard Smith |last=Maynard Smith |first=John |year=1987 |journal=Nature |volume=329 |issue=6142 |pages=761–762 |doi=10.1038/329761a0|pmid=3670381 |bibcode=1987Natur.329..761S |s2cid=5476916 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=Puentedura2003>{{cite book| last=Puentedura |first=Ruben R. |year=2003 |chapter=The Baldwin effect in the age of computation |title=Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered | url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionlearnin00webe | url-access=limited |editor-last=Weber |editor-first=Bruce H. |editor2-last=Depew |editor2-first=David J.|publisher=MIT press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionlearnin00webe/page/n229 219]–234|isbn=9780262232296 }}</ref>

Paul Griffiths<ref name="Griffiths2003">{{cite book| last=Griffiths |first=Paul E. |year=2003 |chapter=Beyond the Baldwin effect: James Mark Baldwin's 'social heredity', epigenetic inheritance, and niche construction |title=Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered |url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionlearnin00webe |url-access=limited |publisher=MIT Press |pages=193–215 |isbn=9780262232296 |editor-last=Weber |editor-first=Bruce H. |editor2-last=Depew |editor2-first=David J.}}</ref> suggests two reasons for the continuing interest in the Baldwin effect. The first is the role ''mind'' is understood to play in the effect. The second is the connection between ''development'' and evolution in the effect. Baldwin's account of how neurophysiological and conscious mental factors may contribute to the effect<ref>{{cite journal |title=Heredity and instinct |last=Baldwin |first=J. Mark |author-link=James Mark Baldwin |year=1896b |journal=Science |volume=3 |issue=64 |pages=438–441, 558–561|doi=10.1126/science.3.64.438 |pmid=17780356|bibcode=1896Sci.....3..438B |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448082 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Consciousness and evolution |last=Baldwin |first=J. Mark |author-link=James Mark Baldwin |year=1896c |journal=Psychological Review |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=300–309 |doi=10.1037/h0063996 |pmid=17835006 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1429086 }}</ref>{{sfn|Baldwin|1896a}} brings into focus the question of the possible survival value of consciousness.<ref name=Lindahl2001>{{cite book| last=Lindahl |first=B. I. B. |year=2001 |chapter=Consciousness, behavioural patterns and the direction of biological evolution: implications for the mind–brain problem |title=Dimensions of Conscious Experience | url=https://archive.org/details/dimensionsconsci00pylk | url-access=limited |publisher=John Benjamins |pages=73–99 |editor-last=Pylkkänen |editor-first=Paavo |editor2-last=Vadén |editor2-first=Tere |isbn=978-90-272-5157-2}}</ref>

[[File:Carpodacus mexicanus -Madison, Wisconsin, USA-8.jpg|thumb|The [[house finch]]'s colonisation of North America has provided empirical evidence of the Baldwin effect.<ref name=Badyaev/>]]

Still, David Depew observed in 2003, "it is striking that a rather diverse lot of contemporary evolutionary theorists, most of whom regard themselves as supporters of the Modern Synthesis, have of late become 'Baldwin boosters'".<ref name="depew03" /> These

{{blockquote|are typically [[evolutionary psychologist]]s who are searching for scenarios in which a population can get itself by behavioral trial and error onto a "hard to find" part of the fitness landscape in which human brain, language, and mind can rapidly coevolve. They are searching for what [[Daniel Dennett]], himself a Baldwin booster, calls an "evolutionary crane," an instrument to do some heavy lifting fast.<ref name="depew03"/>}}

According to Dennett, also in 2003, recent work has rendered the Baldwin effect "no longer a controversial wrinkle in orthodox Darwinism".<ref name="dennett03">[[Daniel Dennett|Dennett, Daniel]] (2003), "The Baldwin Effect: a Crane, not a Skyhook" in: {{cite book |title=Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered  |last1=Weber |first1=Bruce H. |first2=David J. |last2=Depew |year=2003 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-23229-6 |pages=69–106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBtRzBilw1MC&pg=PR9}}</ref> Potential genetic mechanisms underlying the Baldwin effect have been proposed for the evolution of natural (genetically determinant) antibodies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Russell |date=1996 |title=How the adaptive antibodies facilitate the evolution of natural antibodies |journal=Immunology and Cell Biology |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=286–291 |doi=10.1038/icb.1996.50 |pmid=8799730|s2cid=20023879 }}</ref> In 2009, empirical evidence for the Baldwin effect was provided from the colonisation of North America by the [[house finch]].<ref name=Badyaev>{{cite journal |last=Badyaev |first=Alexander V. |title=Evolutionary significance of phenotypic accommodation in novel environments: an empirical test of the Baldwin effect |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B |date=March 2009 |volume=364 |issue=1520 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2008.0285 |pmid=19324617 |pages=1125–1141 |pmc=2666683}}</ref>

The Baldwin effect has been incorporated into the [[extended evolutionary synthesis]].<ref>Pigliucci, Massimo. [https://academic.oup.com/mit-press-scholarship-online/book/13527/chapter-abstract/167051852 ''Phenotypic Plasticity'']. In Massimo Pigliucci, and Gerd B. Müller (eds), ''Evolution: The Extended Synthesis'' (Cambridge, MA, 2010; online edn, MIT Press Scholarship Online, 22 Aug. 2013).</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Loison, Laurent|year=2019|title=Canalization and genetic assimilation: Reassessing the radicality of the Waddingtonian concept of inheritance of acquired characters|journal=Semin Cell Dev Biol|volume=88|issue=|pages=4–13|doi=10.1016/j.semcdb.2018.05.009|pmid=29763656|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Aaby, Bendik Hellem|year=2022|title=The Ecological Dimension of Natural Selection|journal=Philosophy of Science|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy-of-science/article/abs/ecological-dimension-of-natural-selection/A0DD0DCBB4B31B8896DBA6AAA2037DEF|volume=88|issue=5|pages=1199–1209|doi=10.1086/714999|url-access=subscription}}</ref>