Open AccessFeelings as agents of selection: putting C harles D arwin back into (extended neo‐) D arwinism
Author(s) -
Packard Andrew,
DelafieldButt Jonathan T.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
biological journal of the linnean society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.906
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1095-8312
pISSN - 0024-4066
DOI - 10.1111/bij.12225
Subject(s) - biology , feeling , darwinism , cognitive science , evolutionary biology , darwin (adl) , natural selection , convergent evolution , selection (genetic algorithm) , environmental ethics , epistemology , ecology , psychology , phylogenetics , genetics , artificial intelligence , philosophy , systems engineering , computer science , engineering , gene
This cross‐disciplinary essay employs some illustrations (‘vignettes’) of behavioural interactions examined by the authors (man, mammals, fish, octopus) to show feelings and emotions (affects) acting as essential regulators of the process of living. The notion of the primacy of feelings as both necessary feedbacks operating in self‐preservation and growth, and as agents of selection during inter‐subjective and predator–prey exchanges, is supported by a wealth of human and comparative neuroscience findings. The trans‐species core self of vertebrates, identifiable with ancient brain structures on or near the midline, and studies of the vasopressin/oxytocin system that have uncovered a functional and epigenetic continuum traceable to pre‐ C ambrian times, helps to re‐align evolutionary theory upon D arwin's original unabashed notion of a place for emotions, separate from ‘cognitive’ ideas. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2014, 112 , 332–353.