ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the rise of the static view of the mind coincided with an analogous view of individual development based on the premise of preformationism that dominated 20th-century biology. It argues for the value of an action-oriented, relational approach to development, one that acknowledges and addresses the importance of emergence, context, and non-linear processes in all developmental explanation. The concept of epigenesis is among the older concepts in biology, with deep historical roots that reach way back into early philosophical explanations of development. Many scientists resisted epigenesis because of its dependence on vital forces, and continued to argue for some form of preformationism. The gene-based, predetermined epigenetic view that dominated much of 20th-century biological and psychological thought promoted a variety of conceptual dichotomies in the study of development. Genotypes do not exist separate from environments. Gene-protein mapping is complicated even further after the translation process.
