Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who believes that social phenomena must be explained as adaptations to environment and accounted for by collective causes rather than by individual efforts.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A supporter of adaptationism.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word adaptationist.

Examples

  • It is part of what is sometimes called the adaptationist program.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2009

  • This strategy of research ” the so-called adaptationist program ” is the heart of Darwinian biology, and the fervent, singular credo of the ultras.

    Darwinian Fundamentalism Gould, Stephen Jay 1997

  • A discussion of exaptation could also lead to a discussion of spandrels in evolution, which gets at the heart of the "pan-adaptationist" viewpoint held by many evolutionary biologists and virtually all ID supporters.

    Ancient Predator Revealed! 2009

  • I believe that this was Gould's view, which he tempered somewhat to mollify the intensely adaptationist viewpoint taken by the Neo-Darwinian "mainstream".

    Ancient Predator Revealed! 2009

  • Stephen Jay Gould (along with Richard Lewontin) was also a critic of the pan-adaptationist viewpoint in EB and ID, which is not surprising since he was first and foremost a paleontologist, who (as I mentioned above) had to figure out what the various structures in a fossil were "for" (including, of course, the idea that they were "for" nothing at all).

    Ancient Predator Revealed! 2009

  • And once again we see that no matter what is observed, there is a Darwinian adaptationist just-so story told by those oblivious to the teleological nature of their own stories.

    February 25th, 2009 m_francis 2009

  • Lewontin 1979 The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme.

    Flagellum evolution -- how's your German? - The Panda's Thumb 2010

  • But then, I suspect that if I were a biologist, I would be considered an extreme adaptationist.

    The Evolution of Everything - The Panda's Thumb 2010

  • This research demonstrates the utility of examining early-in-the-stream social cognition through the functionalist lens of adaptationist thinking.

    Archive 2008-03-01 2008

  • The dismissal of “junk DNA” never happened in any significant way and even if it did it could only have been between about 1983-1994, and the reason is that adaptationist assumptions led people to expect functions for any DNA that is so abundant.

    Signature in the Cell: self-contradiction and repetition - The Panda's Thumb 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.