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The Concept of Natural Selection in Theodosius Dobzhansky: Its Development and Interpretation

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Natural Selection

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Biology – New Perspectives on Its Development ((EBNPD,volume 3))

Abstract

Throughout his career, Dobzhansky (1900–1975) doubted whether natural selection could explain evolution. My first thesis is that his doubt was qualified and declined during his life, but never disappeared. I offer five reasons for his hesitation. First, evolution was possible without natural selection. He included drift, cooperation, and polyploidy with natural selection as causes of evolution. During his career, he gained confidence in natural selection but kept an open mind about other causes of evolution. Second, the selective neutrality of alleles required for drift was not established, and this affected the assessment of selection. Third, Dobzhansky wanted a causal account of evolution. But initially no causal connection between short-term natural selection and adaptation and long-term speciation could be established by experiment. Later, empirical support for a role of natural selection in evolution became available, but was insufficient. Fourth, it was unlikely that the timing of reproductive isolation would make adaptive evolution possible. Fifth, the selection-balance controversy exposed a variety of additional reasons for doubts about the role of selection. This skepticism about the role of selection in evolution makes Dobzhansky an unlikely participant in the so-called hardening of the synthetic theory of evolution. My second thesis is that Dobzhansky interpreted natural selection as natural evil and that this interpretation can be explained in the context of his religion.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To avoid anachronism, I am not using the contemporary definition: Drift is an indiscriminate sampling process in which any heritable physical differences between entities (organisms, gametes, etc.) are causally irrelevant to differences in reproductive success. By contrast, natural selection is a discriminate sampling process in which any heritable physical differences between entities (organisms, gametes, etc.) are causally relevant to differences in reproductive success. Millstein (2002), quoted from: Millstein (2017)

  2. 2.

    For the relationship between the Mendelians (the experimentalists) and the Darwinians (the naturalists), see Mayr (1980).

  3. 3.

    Dobzhansky (1937) appears to treat a population as an “individual” by attributing a physiology to it (120, 185). Thus, selection between populations could be construed as selection between “individuals.” On the other hand, he refers to selection between “colonies,” i.e., groups within a population (190). This would seem to suggest that he acknowledges selection between individuals (intra-group) and between colonies (inter-group). In both cases, natural selection operates at the population level.

  4. 4.

    This conclusion is warranted by the definition of evolution as any change of allelic frequencies. The definition is ambiguous because it leaves unspecified whether the change is reversible or irreversible (evolution) which is the point at issue. Hence, the conclusion is ambiguous. Proof of evolution requires evidence of irreversible change.

  5. 5.

    For example, the emphasis of taxonomists on the non-adaptive character of species traits may have caused Dobzhansky to emphasize drift as a mechanism of speciation (Provine 1986: 292–293).

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Acknowledgments

I thank the Jackman Foundation for support through the Reverend Edward Jackman. My appreciation goes to the late Helen Semenuk for translations from Russian and Ukrainian and to Ronald Numbers for telling me about the Frank Lewis Marsh Papers. I thank both the American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, and the Center for Adventist Research, James White Library, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, for granting me permission to quote from the Dobzhansky Papers and the Frank Lewis Marsh papers, respectively. Finally, I thank Richard Delisle for the invitation to contribute this chapter and for challenging me to improve it.

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    Jitse M. van der Meer

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    Richard G. Delisle

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van der Meer, J.M. (2021). The Concept of Natural Selection in Theodosius Dobzhansky: Its Development and Interpretation. In: Delisle, R.G. (eds) Natural Selection. Evolutionary Biology – New Perspectives on Its Development, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65536-5_11

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