Purpose and agency in evolutionary biology and psychology.

For more than 100 years, the prevailing perspective on evolution has been gene centric. It is a perspective from which random genetic mutations that happen to lead to naturally selected adaptive phenotypes are seen as the causes of evolution. According to this "modern synthesis," "selfish genes" are insulated from any influences of organisms or their environments and function autonomously. This article presents recent molecular and biological research that has led to an "extended evolutionary sy