Wynne, C. D. L. (2001).
Universal Plotkinism: A review of Henry Plotkin’s
Darwin machines and the nature of knowledge.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
76, 351-361.
Plotkin's Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge
(1993) is a major contribution to the field of evolutionary
epistemology and universal Darwinism. Evolutionary epistemology
is the idea that evolution is a knowledge-gaining process.
Universal Darwinism holds that processes of variation and
selection can be observed at different levels from the primary
level of biological evolution (where genes code for phenotypes)
through to individual learning and culture (where the units of
variation and selection are not so clear cut). Although
antithetical to behaviorism, large parts of Plotkin's thesis can
be recast in nonmentalistic terms and exploited by behavior
analysts. In particular, Plotkin's arguments for a strong
commonality of process between biological evolution and
individual learning offer directions for progress on questions
that have long interested behavior analysts, such as: Why do some
organisms learn? How did learning evolve? What is the relation
between behavior and evolution? Although the paths of connection
between evolution and individual behavior that Plotkin sketches
are not yet fully clear of confusion, his is undoubtedly a very
stimulating direction to explore.
Key words: evolution, epistemology, universal Darwinism