Elementos Neolamarckistas do Selecionismo Skinneriano

Evolutionary biology has been a stage of debates between neo-Darwinian and neo-Lamarckian theories.Neo-Darwinism explains every evolutionary process in terms of the selection of random geneticvariations. Thus, whatever takes place in the individual’s life history, in its development and learning,does not interfere in the evolutionary course. Whereas, neo-Lamarckian theory upholds the existence ofmultiple sources of variation, not always random ones, on which selection operates; it also concedes thatdevelopment and learning may influence evolution. The goal of this essay is to show that Skinner’smodel of selection displays features of a neo-Lamarckian evolutionary theory. It concludes that suchapproximation would help behavior analysis to actively participate in contemporary discussions aboutevolutionary biology