Reddit reviews Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)

From the way this first bit is framed, I wonder if you've ever studied or encountered any of the work that would fall under the aegis of "developmental systems theory". It seems like a lot of the ground you're trying to cover in terms of the distinction between genetic influences on evolution and epigenetic/cultural influences has been covered in great detail by developmental systems theorists from an anti-gene-centric perspective, and you should probably be engaging or at least acknowledging it. Susan Oyama's The Ontogeny of Information and Oyama/Griffiths/Gray's edited volume Cycles of Contingency are a couple of good texts to get acquainted with the DST approach and its (fairly far-reaching) philosophical implications.