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185 | Arvid Ågren on the Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution
Podcast |
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Publisher |
Sean Carroll, 
Wondery
Media Type |
audio
Podknife tags |
Arts, 
Ideas, 
Interview, 
Philosophy, 
Science & Medicine, 
Society & Culture
Categories Via RSS |
Philosophy, 
Physics, 
Science, 
Society & Culture
Publication Date |
Feb 21, 2022
Episode Duration |
01:25:47

One of the brilliant achievements of Darwin’s theory of natural selection was to help explain apparently “purposeful” or “designed” aspects of biology in a purely mechanistic theory of unguided evolution. Features are good if they help organisms survive. But should we put organisms at the center of our attention, or the genetic information that governs those features? Arvid Ågren helps us understand the attraction of the “selfish gene” view of evolution, as well as its shortcomings. This biological excursion has deep connections to philosophical issues of levels and emergence.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Arvid Ågren received his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto. He is currently a Wenner-Gren Fellow at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. Previously he worked at Cornell and Harvard. His recent book is The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution.

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I talk with biologist Arvid Ågren about the relative merits of genes and organisms as the drivers of evolution.

One of the brilliant achievements of Darwin’s theory of natural selection was to help explain apparently “purposeful” or “designed” aspects of biology in a purely mechanistic theory of unguided evolution. Features are good if they help organisms survive. But should we put organisms at the center of our attention, or the genetic information that governs those features? Arvid Ågren helps us understand the attraction of the “selfish gene” view of evolution, as well as its shortcomings. This biological excursion has deep connections to philosophical issues of levels and emergence.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Arvid Ågren received his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto. He is currently a Wenner-Gren Fellow at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. Previously he worked at Cornell and Harvard. His recent book is The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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