Customer Reviews:
 Baldwin- An amazing mind! December 20, 2005
Godspark (Imperial, PA)
Baldwin's most important theoretical legacy is the concept of the Baldwin Effect or Baldwinian evolution. Baldwin proposed, against Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, that there is a mechanism whereby epigenetic factors come to shape the genome as much as-or more than-natural selection pressures. In particular, human behavioural decisions made and sustained across generations as a set of cultural practices ought to be considered among the factors shaping the human genome.
Although relatively obscure in his time, Baldwin's contribution to this field places him at the heart of contemporary controversies in the fields of Evolutionary psychology and wider Sociobiology.
Apart from articles in the Psychological Review, he has written:
Handbook of Psychology (1890), translation of Ribot's, German Psychology of To-day (1886);
Elements of Psychology (1893);
Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development (1898);
Story of the Mind (1898);
Mental Development in the Child and the Race (1896);
Thought and Things (London and New York, 1906).
He also largely contributed to the Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology (1901-1905), of which he was editor in-chief.
In his book Integral Psychology, Ken Wilber refers to Baldwin as a fore-runner of Wilber's theory of Integral Psychology.
As a huge Ken Wilber fan, I found Baldwins works to be of great importance to my understanding of much of today's current thought. Read him and you will know what I mean!
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