Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-04T09:19:40.929Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Selection, Drift, and the “Forces” of Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Christopher Stephens
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recently, several philosophers have challenged the view that evolutionary theory is usefully understood by way of an analogy with Newtonian mechanics. Instead, they argue that evolutionary theory is merely a statistical theory. According to this alternate approach, natural selection and random genetic drift are not even causes, much less forces. I argue that, properly understood, the Newtonian analogy is unproblematic and illuminating. I defend the view that selection and drift are causes in part by attending to a pair of important distinctions—that between process and product and that between natural selection and fitness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , October 2004 , pp. 550 - 570
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

Thanks to Robin Andreasen, André Ariew, John Beatty, Vincent Bergeron, Bruce Glymour, Daniel Hausman, Selman Halabi, Katriina Ilves, Tim Lewens, Mohan Matthen, Anya Plutynski, Alex Rosenberg, Steve Savitt, Elliott Sober and Denis Walsh for helpful comments and discussion. Thanks also to Lisa Lloyd for her comments on an earlier version of this paper at the 2003 Central Division meetings of the American Philosophical Association.

References

Beatty, John (1984), “Chance and Natural Selection”, Chance and Natural Selection 51:183–211.Google Scholar
Brandon, Robert, and Carson, Scott (1996), “The Indeterministic Character of Evolutionary Theory: No ’No Hidden Variables’ Proof But No Room for Determinism Either”, The Indeterministic Character of Evolutionary Theory: No ’No Hidden Variables’ Proof But No Room for Determinism Either 63:315–337.Google Scholar
Endler, John (1986), Natural Selection in the Wild. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, Ronald A. ([1930] 1999), The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gillespie, John (1998), Population Genetics: A Concise Guide. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Matthen, Mohan, and Ariew, André (2002), “Two Ways of Thinking about Fitness and Natural Selection”, Two Ways of Thinking about Fitness and Natural Selection 119(2): 55–83.Google Scholar
Millstein, Roberta (2002), “Are Random Drift and Natural Selection Conceptually Distinct?”, Are Random Drift and Natural Selection Conceptually Distinct? 17:33–53.Google Scholar
Ridley, Mark (1996), Evolution, 2d ed. Cambridge: Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Alex, and Bouchard, Frederic (2004), “Fitness, Probability, and the Principles of Natural Selection”, Biology and Philosophy, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Roughgarden, Jonathan (1979), Theory of Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sklar, Lawrence (1992), Philosophy of Physics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliott (1984), The Nature of Selection. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliott (2000), Philosophy of Biology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Sterelny, Kim, and Kitcher, Philip (1988), “The Return of the Gene”, The Return of the Gene 85 (7): 339–61..Google Scholar
Walsh, Denis (2000), “Chasing Shadows: Natural Selection and Adaptation”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 31C (1): 135–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, Denis (2004), “Bookkeeping or Metaphysics? The Units of Selection Debate”, Synthese, forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, Denis, Lewens, Tim, and Ariew, André (2002), “The Trials of Life: Natural Selection and Random Drift”, The Trials of Life: Natural Selection and Random Drift 69:452–473.Google Scholar
Williams, George C. (1966), Adaptation and Natural Selection. Princeton, NJ: University Press.Google Scholar