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MEASURING GROUP FITNESS IN A BIOLOGICAL HIERARCHY: AN AXIOMATIC SOCIAL CHOICE APPROACH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2013

Walter Bossert ,
Chloe X. Qi  and
John A. Weymark
Walter Bossert
Affiliation:
University of Montreal, [email protected]
Chloe X. Qi
Affiliation:
Boston Consulting Group, [email protected]
John A. Weymark
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, [email protected]
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Abstract

This article illustrates how axiomatic social choice theory can be used in the evaluation of measures of group fitness for a biological hierarchy, thereby contributing to the dialogue between the philosophy of biology and social choice theory. It provides an axiomatic characterization of the ordering underlying the Michod–Viossat–Solari–Hurand–Nedelcu index of group fitness for a multicellular organism. The MVSHN index has been used to analyse the germ-soma specialization and the fitness decoupling between the cell and organism levels that takes place during the evolutionary transition to multicellularity. It is argued that some of the axioms satisfied by the MVSHN group fitness ordering are not appropriate for all stages in this transition.

Type
Articles
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , November 2013 , pp. 301 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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