In Circles We Go

Abstract

We propose a classification and critical review of organic selection, or the Baldwin effect, and its wide range of current uses. From a constructivist viewpoint we criticize the usual reductionistic interpretation of organic selection: the replacement of a habit by an instinct. We argue that organic selection is better understood as a theory closely connected to a constructivist psychology. Such a constructivist psychology was created and developed by Baldwin in order to explain the ontogenetic construction of novel and adaptive behaviours. We apply this approach to the analysis of current interpretations of organic selection by Neo-Darwinism, genetic assimilation, biosemiotics, complex systems theory, social heredity and epigenetic theory.