Selection, Drift, and the "Forces" of Evolution.
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 genet...
| Published in: | Philosophy of Science Vol. 71; no. 4; pp. 550 - 571 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Cambridge University Press
Oct2004
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=15113378&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 15113378 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00318248 PSC jtl: Philosophy of Science issn: 00318248 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Oct2004 vid: 71 iid: 4 pid: 15979 pub: Cambridge University Press artinfo: ui: 15113378 10.1086/423751 ppf: 550 ppct: 21 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 78KB tig: atl: Selection, Drift, and the "Forces" of Evolution. aug: au: Stephens, Christopher affil: Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, 1866 Main Mall, E370, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z1. su: Philosophers Mechanics (Physics) Natural selection Genetics Analogy Biological variation sug: subj: Philosophers Mechanics (Physics) Natural selection Genetics Analogy Biological variation ab: 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. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Philosophy of Science is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Philosophy of Science holder: Cambridge University Press dt: @attributes: year: 2004 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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