Plasticity and information

In this chapter, I discuss developmental plasticity in relation to the concept of reaction norms. Standard treatments of reaction norms have been accused of gene-centrism by those seeking to extend the Modern Synthesis. I analyze this complaint with reference to uses and concepts of information. My central claim is that information concepts are both abstractions and idealizations, and as such have been designed for specific explanatory purposes. The purposes of evolutionary accounts at the population level demanded an instructional view of the information contained in the gene, but I argue that this was not how biologists ever thought of genes and in fact underpinning this view was a more detailed, cybernetic position that is entirely compatible with claims that emerged within developmental systems theory and that have been coopted by some in the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Finally, I use this analysis to briefly unravel some of the views allocated to West-Eberhard’s magnum opus, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution.