Individuals, groups, fitness and utility: Multi-level selection meets social choice theory
Biology and Philosophy 24 (5):561-584 (2009)
| Abstract | In models of multi-level selection, the property of Darwinian fitness is attributed to entities at more than one level of the biological hierarchy, e.g. individuals and groups. However, the relation between individual and group fitness is a controversial matter. Theorists disagree about whether group fitness should always, or ever, be defined as total (or average) individual fitness. This paper tries to shed light on the issue by drawing on work in social choice theory, and pursuing an analogy between fitness and utility. Social choice theorists have long been interested in the relation between individual and social utility, and have identified conditions under which social utility equals total (or average) individual utility. These ideas are used to shed light on the biological problem. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,711 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesGrant Ramsey & Robert Brandon (2011). Why Reciprocal Altruism is Not a Kind of Group Selection. Biology and Philosophy 26 (3):385-400.
Alejandro Rosas (2010). Beyond Inclusive Fitness? On A Simple And General Explanation For The Evolution of Altruism. Philosophy and Theory in Biology 2.
Randolph M. Nesse (2004). Cliff-Edged Fitness Functions and the Persistence of Schizophrenia. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27 (6):862-863.
Abner Shimony (1989). The Non-Existence of a Principle of Natural Selection. Biology and Philosophy 4 (3):255-273.
Deborah G. Mayo & Norman L. Gilinsky (1987). Models of Group Selection. Philosophy of Science 54 (4):515-538.
Elliott Sober & David Sloan Wilson (2002). Perspectives and Parameterizations Commentary on Benjamin Kerr and Peter Godfrey-Smith's ``Individualist and Multi-Level Perspectives on Selection in Structured Populations''. Biology and Philosophy 17 (4).
Jonathan Birch (2012). Social Revolution. Biology and Philosophy 27 (4):571-581.
Paul Weirich (1984). Interpersonal Utility in Principles of Social Choice. Erkenntnis 21 (3):295 - 317.
Sahotra Sarkar (2008). A Note on Frequency Dependence and the Levels/Units of Selection. Biology and Philosophy 23 (2):217-228.
Joachim Dagg (2012). The Paradox of Sexual Reproduction and the Levels of Selection: Can Sociobiology Shed a Light? Philosophy and Theory in Biology 4.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-02-23Total downloads39 ( #29,888 of 551,007 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 551,007 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
