The Natures of Selection
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8397335 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tim Lewens (0000-0002-4617-9216, University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 313-333 |
| Publication date | 2010-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0882 • E-ISSN: 1464-3537 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/bjps/axp041 |
| OpenAlex | W2105565790 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 12 |
Elliott Sober and his defenders think of selection, drift, mutation, and migration as distinct evolutionary forces. This paper exposes an ambiguity in Sober's account of the force of selection: sometimes he appears to equate the force of selection with variation in fitness, sometimes with ‘selection for properties’. Sober's own account of fitness as a property analogous to life-expectancy shows how the two conceptions come apart. Cases where there is selection against variance in offspring number also show that selection and drift cannot be distinguished in the way Sober hopes for. These issues have significance beyond the parochial matter of the coherence of Sober's system. There is no good principled answer to the question of which features of a population should count among the contributors to fitness. This means there is no non-arbitrary account of the nature of selection. 1. Evolutionary Forces 2. Selection and Drift 3. Evolutionary and Newtonian Forces 4. Is Natural Selection a Cause? 5. An Ambiguity in Sober's Account of Selection: Variation in Fitness versus Selection-for 6. A Second Problem: The Determinants of Fitness 7. Conclusion
Ambiguity · Biology · Epistemology · Evolutionary biology · Inclusive fitness · Kin selection · Natural selection · Population · Selection (genetic algorithm) · Sociology · Stabilizing selection · Variation (astronomy) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Demography · Evolution and Genetic Dynamics · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science
Not a Sure Thing
Inclusive fitness as a criterion for improvement
Drift as constitutive
Natural Selection, Mechanism, and the Statistical Interpretation
Causal Foundations of Evolutionary Genetics
Organisms, Traits, and Population Subdivisions
A New Foundation for the Propensity Interpretation of Fitness
Population Pluralism and Natural Selection
Musing on Means
Arbitrariness and Causation in Classical Population Genetics
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,63 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2020 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |