Dear Rouny,There is no goal for adaptation. I think if you use that sort of language you are lost forever. Evolution is goalless. Every 'adaptation' is just as much a 'maladaptation' to something else. I find EO Wilson's approach clear. You just have to understand the maths well enough and forget any teleology. The maths can deal with theories of causation but the causation involves no goals, no optimising, just further procreation or not.

I would warn against going in to philosophical aspects at your stage. Hard experimental slog is what teaches one how things actually work. And it is what gets employment, and rightly so because jobs need to go to people who will do the spadework. That may sound harsh advice and I would not want to discourage deep thinking but get some practical work done so that you can judge whether or not the thinking was really that deep!

Best wishes

Jo E