Gregory Mengel | California Institute of Integral Studies (original) (raw)

Papers by Gregory Mengel

Contemporary attempts to bring evolution and ontogeny into a productive theoretical synthesis are... more Contemporary attempts to bring evolution and ontogeny into a productive theoretical synthesis are constrained by a legacy of preformationist thinking. This legacy, which is descended from the metaphysics of the Scientific Revolution, is embodied in what I call the inheritance paradigm. In this dissertation, I document the interacting material and conceptual factors responsible for the development of the inheritance paradigm and critically examine its role in contemporary theory. I begin by describing the transformation of the physical and social landscape of early modern Europe that created the conditions for inheritance-based reasoning to develop. I then follow the construction of biological inheritance from its early appearance as an unstructured analogy, through its consolidation into a structured medical concept, and finally to its integration into biology as a general explanatory category.

Next, I examine a theoretical and philosophical counter-movement in the life sciences, sometimes called constructionism (Gray, 1992). Proponents of the constructionist movement emphasize the interdependence of phylogenetic and ontogenetic (including behavioral) dynamics in the production of complex organic form. Developmental systems theory (DST), in particular, seeks to integrate theories of ontogeny and evolution by rejecting the preformationism implicit in the genes-environment dichotomy and taking seriously the constructive interactions that are actually responsible for the production of complex organic form.

Finally, I evaluate a recent revision of DST that attempts, by way of an extended model of inheritance, to resolve a supposed inconsistency between DST and Darwinian explanation. I argue that this revision, with its focus on the causes of intergenerational resemblance and stability, privileges the inheritance paradigm over the systems thinking that is at the heart of DST. I suggest, therefore, that a constructionist integration of evolutionary and developmental theories would be more effectively advanced by replacing the inheritance paradigm with a network paradigm that emphasizes the constructive, interactive dynamics responsible for the formation and transformation of developmental systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

The rate at which new genetic technologies are becoming available to the public is far outpacing ... more The rate at which new genetic technologies are becoming available to the public is far outpacing our ability as a society to respond meaningfully to the ethical and practical challenges these technologies pose. The benefits of genetic tests for various disease risks, for example, may seem obvious. Yet, some experts suggest that because of the complex interdependence between genetics, environment, and lifestyle these tests have little clinical relevance (Hirschler, 2007). Another concern is the prospect that this technology will facilitate the sort of creeping medicalization that has characterized the marketing of pharmaceuticals in recent years. How long before genomics companies claim to have identified genetic markers for traits that some may deem undesirable, such as shortness, intellectual mediocrity, and homosexuality? Such tests would facilitate a hi-tech, market-driven eugenics, and force on society a set of choices for which we may not be prepared. In order to frame an adequate response to this challenge, I believe, we must examine the logic implicit within the standard model of heredity and recognize its essential limitations.

The opposing ideologies that constitute the cultural conflict over evolutionary theory in the Uni... more The opposing ideologies that constitute the cultural conflict over evolutionary theory in the United States share the idea that reality can be encompassed within a single literal interpretation. That fundamentalist Christians claim their literal interpretation of the Bible to represent the one correct meaning of human history is well known. That many spokespersons for evolutionary theory make a similar claim regarding natural history is less often recognized. Both groups fail to appreciate the degree to which all human knowledge is shaped by myth and metaphor. The continued resistance to biological evolution by large numbers of Americans, therefore, may not be an irrational rejection of science, grounded in religious fundamentalism, as much it is as a rational response to the scientific fundamentalism implicit in many popular accounts of evolution. Indeed, to many people, the unqualified reductionism of these accounts is a threat to the very meaningfulness of human life. I argue in this paper that to understand the mythopoeic character of human thought is to see beyond religious and scientific fundamentalisms and to begin to glimpse the ways in which the human mind is inextricably intertwined with the evolutionary creativity of which it is a magnificent expression. Perhaps, based on this insight, we might begin to imagine poetic and spiritually nourishing stories of human origins, which are inspired by, rather than opposed to, the findings of natural science.

Memory is certainly one of the primary mysteries of existence. Is it a special capacity of the hu... more Memory is certainly one of the primary mysteries of existence. Is it a special capacity of the human brain for storing information, or is it something more pervasive, perhaps a general feature of the living world? This paper will explore the possibilities and implications of an expanded conception of memory, which includes this much larger context. After a critique of the dominant metaphors for memory and mind, I argue for an alternative in which memory is recognized as a defining characteristic of living systems. This alternative draws on the insights of an emerging paradigm in cognitive science, sometimes called the enactive approach to cognition, which holds that learning and acting are inseparable aspects of living. Knowing is not the recovery and representation of a pregiven external world, but the enaction of embodied patterns of relationship within a living community. Memory is another word for the embodiment of these patterns. The enactive approach thus suggests that every human body, as an expression of lived patterns of relationship, embodies the memory of its particular evolutionary, cultural and personal history. This approach thus helps to overcome traditional dualisms (mind/body, spirit/matter, nature/culture) and affirms the continuity between the human and more-than-human world.

Merleau-Ponty offers a significant renewal and deepening of the phenomenological project by intro... more Merleau-Ponty offers a significant renewal and deepening of the phenomenological project by introducing the body itself as the locus of the “upsurge of the world.” His career represents an unfolding revelation of this fundamental insight, beginning with a realization of the inadequacy of objective/mechanistic psychology and eventually moving toward a never completed project of re-imagining ontology in terms of the self revelation of the world as living existence. In this paper, I concentrate on the first phase of Merleau-Ponty’s career, which includes his challenge to the objectivist tendencies in biology and psychology and his alternative phenomenological vision of life and significance. In Phenomenology of Perception, in particular, Merleau-Ponty argues that scientific knowledge passes over the true nature of perception and, therefore, misses its origin in the silent immersion of the body in a world with which it is always already intimate. Indeed, for Merleau-Ponty, phenomenology reveals, in perceptual experience, the birth of meaning as it is lived by bodies in the subtle dance that is existence.

Contemporary attempts to bring evolution and ontogeny into a productive theoretical synthesis are... more Contemporary attempts to bring evolution and ontogeny into a productive theoretical synthesis are constrained by a legacy of preformationist thinking. This legacy, which is descended from the metaphysics of the Scientific Revolution, is embodied in what I call the inheritance paradigm. In this dissertation, I document the interacting material and conceptual factors responsible for the development of the inheritance paradigm and critically examine its role in contemporary theory. I begin by describing the transformation of the physical and social landscape of early modern Europe that created the conditions for inheritance-based reasoning to develop. I then follow the construction of biological inheritance from its early appearance as an unstructured analogy, through its consolidation into a structured medical concept, and finally to its integration into biology as a general explanatory category.

Next, I examine a theoretical and philosophical counter-movement in the life sciences, sometimes called constructionism (Gray, 1992). Proponents of the constructionist movement emphasize the interdependence of phylogenetic and ontogenetic (including behavioral) dynamics in the production of complex organic form. Developmental systems theory (DST), in particular, seeks to integrate theories of ontogeny and evolution by rejecting the preformationism implicit in the genes-environment dichotomy and taking seriously the constructive interactions that are actually responsible for the production of complex organic form.

Finally, I evaluate a recent revision of DST that attempts, by way of an extended model of inheritance, to resolve a supposed inconsistency between DST and Darwinian explanation. I argue that this revision, with its focus on the causes of intergenerational resemblance and stability, privileges the inheritance paradigm over the systems thinking that is at the heart of DST. I suggest, therefore, that a constructionist integration of evolutionary and developmental theories would be more effectively advanced by replacing the inheritance paradigm with a network paradigm that emphasizes the constructive, interactive dynamics responsible for the formation and transformation of developmental systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

The rate at which new genetic technologies are becoming available to the public is far outpacing ... more The rate at which new genetic technologies are becoming available to the public is far outpacing our ability as a society to respond meaningfully to the ethical and practical challenges these technologies pose. The benefits of genetic tests for various disease risks, for example, may seem obvious. Yet, some experts suggest that because of the complex interdependence between genetics, environment, and lifestyle these tests have little clinical relevance (Hirschler, 2007). Another concern is the prospect that this technology will facilitate the sort of creeping medicalization that has characterized the marketing of pharmaceuticals in recent years. How long before genomics companies claim to have identified genetic markers for traits that some may deem undesirable, such as shortness, intellectual mediocrity, and homosexuality? Such tests would facilitate a hi-tech, market-driven eugenics, and force on society a set of choices for which we may not be prepared. In order to frame an adequate response to this challenge, I believe, we must examine the logic implicit within the standard model of heredity and recognize its essential limitations.

The opposing ideologies that constitute the cultural conflict over evolutionary theory in the Uni... more The opposing ideologies that constitute the cultural conflict over evolutionary theory in the United States share the idea that reality can be encompassed within a single literal interpretation. That fundamentalist Christians claim their literal interpretation of the Bible to represent the one correct meaning of human history is well known. That many spokespersons for evolutionary theory make a similar claim regarding natural history is less often recognized. Both groups fail to appreciate the degree to which all human knowledge is shaped by myth and metaphor. The continued resistance to biological evolution by large numbers of Americans, therefore, may not be an irrational rejection of science, grounded in religious fundamentalism, as much it is as a rational response to the scientific fundamentalism implicit in many popular accounts of evolution. Indeed, to many people, the unqualified reductionism of these accounts is a threat to the very meaningfulness of human life. I argue in this paper that to understand the mythopoeic character of human thought is to see beyond religious and scientific fundamentalisms and to begin to glimpse the ways in which the human mind is inextricably intertwined with the evolutionary creativity of which it is a magnificent expression. Perhaps, based on this insight, we might begin to imagine poetic and spiritually nourishing stories of human origins, which are inspired by, rather than opposed to, the findings of natural science.

Memory is certainly one of the primary mysteries of existence. Is it a special capacity of the hu... more Memory is certainly one of the primary mysteries of existence. Is it a special capacity of the human brain for storing information, or is it something more pervasive, perhaps a general feature of the living world? This paper will explore the possibilities and implications of an expanded conception of memory, which includes this much larger context. After a critique of the dominant metaphors for memory and mind, I argue for an alternative in which memory is recognized as a defining characteristic of living systems. This alternative draws on the insights of an emerging paradigm in cognitive science, sometimes called the enactive approach to cognition, which holds that learning and acting are inseparable aspects of living. Knowing is not the recovery and representation of a pregiven external world, but the enaction of embodied patterns of relationship within a living community. Memory is another word for the embodiment of these patterns. The enactive approach thus suggests that every human body, as an expression of lived patterns of relationship, embodies the memory of its particular evolutionary, cultural and personal history. This approach thus helps to overcome traditional dualisms (mind/body, spirit/matter, nature/culture) and affirms the continuity between the human and more-than-human world.

Merleau-Ponty offers a significant renewal and deepening of the phenomenological project by intro... more Merleau-Ponty offers a significant renewal and deepening of the phenomenological project by introducing the body itself as the locus of the “upsurge of the world.” His career represents an unfolding revelation of this fundamental insight, beginning with a realization of the inadequacy of objective/mechanistic psychology and eventually moving toward a never completed project of re-imagining ontology in terms of the self revelation of the world as living existence. In this paper, I concentrate on the first phase of Merleau-Ponty’s career, which includes his challenge to the objectivist tendencies in biology and psychology and his alternative phenomenological vision of life and significance. In Phenomenology of Perception, in particular, Merleau-Ponty argues that scientific knowledge passes over the true nature of perception and, therefore, misses its origin in the silent immersion of the body in a world with which it is always already intimate. Indeed, for Merleau-Ponty, phenomenology reveals, in perceptual experience, the birth of meaning as it is lived by bodies in the subtle dance that is existence.