Evolution and the Levels of Selection

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ISBN: 9780199267972 | 0199267979
Cover: Hardcover
Copyright: 1/18/2007

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Does natural selection act primarily on individual organisms, on groups, on genes, or on whole species? The question of levels of selection - on which biologists and philosophers have long disagreed - is central to evolutionary theory and to the philosophy of biology. Samir Okasha's comprehensive analysis gives a clear account of the philosophical issues at stake in the current debate.

Introduction	p. 1
Natural Selection in the Abstract	p. 10
Introduction	p. 10
Abstract Formulations of Darwinian Principles	p. 13
Price's Equation	p. 18
Interpretation of Price's Equation	p. 23
Statistical versus Causal Decomposition	p. 25
Random Drift and Causal Decomposition	p. 31
Price's Equation and the Lewontin Conditions	p. 34
Selection at Multiple Levels: Concepts and Methods	p. 40
Introduction	p. 40
Hierarchical Organization	p. 40
Selection at Multiple Levels: Key Concepts	p. 46
Particle Characters and Collective Characters	p. 48
Life Cycles	p. 49
Particle Fitness and Collective Fitness	p. 53
The Two Types of Multi-Level Selection	p. 56
Particle Heritability and Collective Heritability	p. 59
Price's Equation in a Hierarchical Setting	p. 62
The Price Approach to MLS1	p. 62
Applications	p. 66
Heritability in MLS1 Revisited	p. 71
The Price Approach to MLS2	p. 74
Causality and Multi-Level Selection	p. 76
Introduction	p. 76
Causes, Correlations, and Cross-Level By-Products	p. 76
Selection on Correlated Characters	p. 80
Cross-Level By-Products in MLS1	p. 84
Contextual Analysis: Further Remarks	p. 89
Contextual Analysis versus Price's Equation	p. 93
Cross-Level By-Products in MLS2	p. 100
Particle[RightArrow]Collective By-Products	p. 100
Collective[RightArrow]Particle By-Products	p. 107
Philosophical Issues in the Levels-of-Selection Debate	p. 112
Introduction	p. 112
Emergence and Additivity	p. 112
The Emergent Character Requirement	p. 112
Additivity and the Wimsatt/Lloyd Approach	p. 114
Emergent Relations and the Damuth-Heisler Approach	p. 119
Screening Off and the Levels of Selection	p. 121
Realism versus Pluralism about the Levels of Selection	p. 125
Pluralism and Causality	p. 128
Pluralism and Hierarchical Organization	p. 130
Pluralism and Multiple Representations	p. 133
Reductionism	p. 139
The Gene's-Eye View and its Discontents	p. 143
Introduction	p. 143
The Origins of Gene's-Eye Thinking	p. 143
Genic Selection and the Gene's-Eye View: Process versus Perspective	p. 146
Outlaws and Genetic Conflicts	p. 149
Price's Equation versus Contextual Analysis Revisited	p. 154
Bookkeeping and Causality	p. 158
The Limits of Genic Accounting	p. 158
Sober and Lewontin's Heterosis Argument	p. 162
Context-Dependence and the Gene's-Eye View	p. 166
Reductionism and Pluralism Revisited	p. 169
The Group Selection Controversy	p. 173
Introduction	p. 173
Origins of the Group Selection Controversy	p. 174
Group Selection and the MLS1/MLS2 Distinction	p. 178
Kin Selection, Reciprocal Altruism, and Evolutionary Game Theory	p. 180
Maynard Smith versus Sober and Wilson on Group Heritability	p. 185
The Averaging Fallacy	p. 189
Random versus Assortative Grouping, Strong versus Weak Altruism	p. 192
Contextual Analysis versus the Neighbour Approach	p. 198
Species Selection, Clade Selection, and Macroevolution	p. 203
Introduction	p. 203
Origins of Species Selection	p. 203
Genuine Species Selection versus 'Causation from Below'	p. 206
Species versus Avatars: Damuth's Challenge	p. 210
The Concept of Clade Selection	p. 212
Levels of Selection and the Major Evolutionary Transitions	p. 218
Introduction	p. 218
The Transformation of the Levels-of-Selection Question	p. 219
Genic versus Hierarchical Approaches to the Transitions	p. 225
MLS1 versus MLS2 in Relation to Evolutionary Transitions	p. 229
Michod on Fitness Decoupling and the Emergence of Individuality	p. 233
Concluding Remarks	p. 236
Bibliography	p. 241
Index	p. 257
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