Evolution's Eye A Systems View of the Biology-Culture Divide

Oyama writes elegantly and from a deep intellectual base. This alternative view to the dominant genetic determinism will be of interest to all who seek a more complex view of human nature. It is an excellent book, beautifully composed.--Katherine Nelson, City University of New York "[Oyama's] subtle and sometimes abstruse study of recent concepts in biology and social science ... aims to displace models of selfish genes with models of competing and interacting processes ... she wants to think--and to get us to think--about how culture, environment, and genetic programming are constantly "talking to" one another, and how it's their interaction that creates us. It's a worthy goal, and one her book should advance."--Publishers Weekly, April 24, 2000 "To think of nature and nurture as two distinct categories is not only wrong, Susan Oyama convincingly argues, but doing so hobbles our attempts to understand the nature of development and evolution at every level. Hers is a voice that needs to be heard."--Evelyn Fox Keller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Susan Oyama's Ontogeny of Information provided a navigational chart for researchers seeking to avoid the shoals of the nature-nurture dichotomy. Here, in Evolution's Eye, she good-humouredly unmasks the rhetorical stratagems of reflexive genecentrism, while continuing to strengthen the case for the integrative, multifocal, approach of developmental systems theory."--Helen E. Longino, University of Minnesota