I don’t know what the “third way of evolution” (TWE) is all about

I’ve heard the phrase a few times, and I don’t get it. It sounds unhinged.

Philip Ball, writing in The New European asks “Do we need a modern Darwin?” (13 November 2024). He reports the view of organisms have agency in their evolution, more so than genes:

[…] by virtue of being able to make choices, and in particular to alter their environment and the selective pressure it exerts, organisms have a primary role in evolution. 

Denis Noble is a proponent of this view, and Richard Dawkins is very much not. You can watch them slugging it out on stage for an incredibly civil 50 minutes.

I’m reading Dawkin’s latest book, and chapter 8 rejects these ideas:

Here is his [Denis Noble’s] lucid and unequivocal statement, right at the beginning of his book Dance to the Tune of Life:

“This book will show you that there are no genes ‘for’ anything. Living organisms have functions which use genes to make the molecules they need. Genes are used. They are not active causes.”

That is precisely and diametrically wrong, and it will be my business in this chapter to show it. 

The chapter reinforces the gene-centric view, which I’m all on board with. But I still don’t know what the logic is of this “agency” and how it works. I’m probably mixing up a bunch of ideas. 

A few other sources I’ve looked at:

• Evolution May Be Purposeful And It’s Freaking Scientists Out, Forbes, 14 June 2024.
• It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life, Denis Nobel review of Philip Ball’s book, Nature book reviews, 5 February 2024.
• Evolution “On Purpose”: Teleonomy in Living Systems, MIT Press, 2023.
• The marketing web site, if that’s the right description: https://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com
• Mindscape podcast: Addy Pross on Dynamics, Stability, and Life, 28 October 2024.
• The Physiology of Evolution, The Journal of Physiology, special issue, May 2024.

Even so, I still don’t get it.