Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The rationality of mother nature

Samir Okasha: Agents and goals in evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, xiv+254pp, £30.00 HB

  • Symposium
  • Published:
Metascience Aims and scope

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. The replicator dynamics describes the change in \(x_{i}\), the frequency of trait i, with the following equation:

    $$\dot{x} = x_{i} [w_{i} - \bar{w}]$$

    where \(w_{i}\) is the fitness of trait i and \(\bar{w}\) is the average fitness in the population, which both depend on the current population composition.

  2. Assuming only selection is at work (e.g., using the replicator dynamics with standard assumptions about population structure, etc.) and that the possible phenotypes correspond to pure strategies of the game.

References

  • Doebeli, M. 2011. Adaptive diversification. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kisdi, É. 2001. Long-term adaptive diversity in Levene-type models. Evolutionary Ecology Research 3 (6): 721–727.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skyrms, B. 1990. The dynamics of rational deliberation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, E. 1984. The nature of selection: Evolutionary theory in philosophical focus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weibull, J.W. 1997. Evolutionary game theory. Washington: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Simon Huttegger and Mike Schneider for helpful feedback, and to Corey Dethier, Emanuele Ratti, Lynn Joy, Justin Bruner, Brian Skyrms, and Elliott Chen for joining me in discussions on the book.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, USA

    Hannah Rubin

Authors
  1. Hannah Rubin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hannah Rubin.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rubin, H. The rationality of mother nature. Metascience 28, 365–372 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-019-00452-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-019-00452-8

Search

Navigation