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The Unit of Selection and the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection Without Lineage Formation
The aim of this article is to develop an approach to the unit of selection concept that fits the theory of evolution by natural selection without...
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Defending the importance of lineage-forming reproduction in evolution by natural selection
Charbonneau (
2014 ) and Papale (2021 ) challenge the necessity of reproduction for evolution by natural selection (ENS) by contending that what really...
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The selfish machine? On the power and limitation of natural selection to understand the development of advanced AI
Some philosophers and machine learning experts have speculated that superintelligent Artificial Intelligences (AIs), if and when they arrive on the...
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Natural Selection: A Mechanism, A Pathway or A Little Bit of Both?
In this paper, we examine the issue of characterizing natural selection. Usually, natural selection is characterized as a force, as a statistical...
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Trait-centered vs. fitness-centered definitions of natural selection
During the past few decades, fitness-centered and trait-centered definitions of natural selection have coexisted in the philosophical literature. The...
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Natural selection requires no teleology in addition to heritable variation in fitness
According to the standard formulation, natural selection requires variation, differential fitness, and heritability. I argue that this formulation is...
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Is Natural Selection Physical?
Biology, in contrast to other historical disciplines such as cosmology or geology, is not explicitly articulated with physics. More specifically, its...
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The evolution of multispecies populations: a multilevel selection perspective
Two or more independent species lineages can fuse through an evolutionary transition to form a single lineage, such as in the case of eukaryotic...
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Ronald Fisher and group selection
Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890–1962) was a pioneer of evolutionary biology who founded modern statistics. He has often been associated with a...
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Biological Purposes Beyond Natural Selection: Self-Regulation as a Source of Teleology1
Selected-effects theories provide the most popular account of biological teleology. According to these theories, the purpose of a trait is to do...
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Plasticity-Led (Not First) Evolution: A Matter of Causal Relevance
Phenotypic plasticity has long been a phenomenon studied in evolutionary biology, but in recent decades it has attracted renewed interest among...
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Environmental Homogeneity, Selective Paths, and the Individuation of Selection Processes
In his influential book Adaptation and Environment, Robert Brandon defended a fitness-centered definition of natural selection according to which...
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Is Natural Selection in Trouble? When Emotions Run High in a Philosophical Debate
This paper deals in detail with a fairly recent philosophical debate centered around the ability of the theory of natural selection to account for...
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Evolution and the Goodness of God
This chapter concerns whether evolution, and animal suffering in particular, can be reconciled with the goodness of God (as the creator). The opening...
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Gradualism, natural selection, and the randomness of mutation–fisher, Kimura, and Orr, connecting the dots
Evolutionary gradualism, the randomness of mutations, and the hypothesis that natural selection exerts a pervasive and substantial influence on...
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The Third Law of Evolution and The Future of Life A systems approach to natural philosophy
This book offers a step-by-step introduction to an integrated theory of physical and biological evolution, from the early universe to the world we...
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The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency
This chapter examines the deep connections between biological organization, agency, and evolution by natural selection. Using Griesemer’s account of...
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Psychogenesis in Evolution and History
This chapter proposes a criterion for critically addressing the nature-culture duality, replacing it with a non-dual conception in which evolution,...