then a molecular biological model of human behavioral, social, and cultural
development will be the next big thing. This is a revision of a version sent
earlier to some of you. Apologies for the redundancy.
Abstract
Development is a sequence of changes in the form and behavior of an organism or
group of organisms that is probabilistically predictable from the duration of
its existence. As we come to accumulate more and more knowledge about the
molecular biology of embryological development, we should consider how that
process might serve as a model on which to build an understanding of
behavioral, social, or cultural development. The form of the embryo at each
microstage in embryological development emerges from the regulation of the
chemical activity of the genes by their organismic context, which is, in turn,
an emergent of an earlier micro-stage of development. If such a model is to
be built, we must think about the various analogues that will give the model
its form: what is the analogue in behavioral development for the chemical
signals that provide orientation in the early stages of development: What is
the analogue in behavioral development for the gradients these signals form
that provide locational information? What is the analogue in behavioral
development for the hox genes that spring into action when disinhibited by the
chemical context in which they find themselves? The answer to each of these
questions may well be that there IS no such analogue, and the whole idea of
modeling human behavioral and social development on embryological developmental
processes is foolish. But given the vagaries of contemporary developmental
theory, to prejudge the heuristic value of such modeling would be unwise.
Comments?
Nicholas S. Thompson
Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Professor of Psychology and Ethology (on leave), Clark University ([EMAIL
PROTECTED])
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