CONTRIBUTI / 9 / Chiara Pertile
Engineered inheritances. habit and adaptation
This paper aims to explore from a historical and a theoretical point of view the topic of habit in the evolutionary field. Starting from the use of habits in Lamarck’s and Darwin’s thought, it focuses on the principle of Organic Selection formulated by James Mark Baldwin. In fact, Baldwin’s theory successfully explains the role of habits within the individual and social life of organisms and their evolutionary power coherently with the Darwinian theory. Finally, the organisms-environment interaction that emerges from it can be assimilated with the recent Niche Construction Theory. In this view habits play a leading role: by extending their spatial and temporal dimension they assume a mainly ecological meaning.