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2 results

  • 20 - Narrative Solutions to a Common Evolutionary Problem

  • from VI - Narrative Sensibility and Argument
  • Edited by Mary S. Morgan, London School of Economics and Political Science, Kim M. Hajek, London School of Economics and Political Science, Dominic J. Berry, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Book:
    Narrative Science
    Published online:
    16 September 2022
    Print publication:
    06 October 2022, pp 405-423
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  • Summary

    To give a Darwinian explanation of the traits of a species, it is not enough to show that the traits are appropriate for the environments inhabited. One must also show that the traits in question are more appropriate than the (presumed) ancestral traits from which they are derived. But one must go further still. Even if there is no question that the derived traits are more appropriate, one must still specify the sequence of modifications leading from the ancestral to the derived traits, each step of which is fitness-enhancing. How better – indeed, how else – than by a narrative? I illustrate these points through the evolution of flatfish eyes. This is part of an ongoing project concerning what narratives are good for, what narratives do better than non-narrative arguments: in short, why we need narratives.

Narrative Science
  • Reasoning, Representing and Knowing since 1800
  • Edited by Mary S. Morgan, Kim M. Hajek, Dominic J. Berry
  • Published online:
    16 September 2022
    Print publication:
    06 October 2022
  • Narrative Science examines the use of narrative in scientific research over the last two centuries. It brings together an international group of scholars who have engaged in intense collaboration to find and develop crucial cases of narrative in science. Motivated and coordinated by the Narrative Science project, funded by the European Research Council, this volume offers integrated and insightful essays examining cases that run the gamut from geology to psychology, chemistry, physics, botany, mathematics, epidemiology, and biological engineering. Taking in shipwrecks, human evolution, military intelligence, and mass extinctions, this landmark study revises our understanding of what science is, and the roles of narrative in scientists' work. This title is also available as Open Access.