Abstract
How does a fertilized egg develop into an embryo and subsequently into an adult form? The issue of what causes morphogenesis has fascinated philosophers and biologists alike, at least since Aristotle. One particularly influential and long-running line of thought has been to explain morphogenesis as the progressive realization of preexisting information (in particular genetic information, through the execution of a genetic program: e.g., Mayr 1969, Jacob 1970, Monod 1970). This talk will explore the reasons why the term "information" has been chosen to account for biological development, and it will examine the relations between the concepts of information and causation. In Susan Oyama's (2000) footsteps, I will suggest that the idea of developmental information is rooted in the oversimplified view that morphogenesis is mainly driven by one set of causes, namely genetic causes. Recent discoveries about feedback loops in morphogenesis and the key influence of a myriad of epigenetic and environmental factors influencing development, in particular symbiotic interactions (Gilbert and Epel 2009), cast doubt on this monocausal view of morphogenesis, and put into question informational approaches to development.
