Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T20:34:29.874Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ambiguities and Pragmatic Factors in the Units of Selection Controversy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

John Cassidy
John Cassidy*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia School of Law
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The question “what is (are) the unit(s) of selection” can be interpreted in three different ways. These interpretations are discussed and it is shown that they prompt different answers; such units are shown to be individuals in the context of the given interpretation. One of these interpretations is argued, by examples, not always to have an unambiguously correct answer. An alternative approach to this question is sketched.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 95 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I am indebted to David Hull for a copy of his (1978).

References

Cassidy, J. (1978), “Philosophical Aspects of the Group Selection Controversy”, Philosophy of Science 45: 575–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1976), The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1978), “Replicator Selection and the Extended Phenotype”, Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 47: 61–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, W. D. (1975), “Innate Social Aptitudes of Man: an Approach from Evolutionary Genetics”. In Biosocial Anthropology, Fox, Robin (ed.) Malaby Press: 133–155.Google Scholar
Hull, D. (1978), “The Units of Selection: A Metaphysical Essay”. ms.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1963), Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, G. R. (1972), “Extension of Covariance Selection Mathematics”, Annual of Human Genetics, London 35: 485–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trivers, R. L. (1974), “Parent Offspring Conflict”, American Zoology 14: 249–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, M. (1976), “Group Selection among Laboratory Populations of Tribolium”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 76: 4604–4607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, M. (1977), “An Experimental Study of Group Selection”, Evolution 31: 134–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wade, M. (1978), “A Critical Review of the Models of Group Selection”, Quarterly Review of Biology 53: 101–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, M. (1979), “The Evolution of Social Interactions by Family Selection”, American Naturalist 113: 399–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. S. (1975), “A Theory of Group Selection”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 72: 143–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, S. (1963), “Adaptation and Selection”. In Genetics, Paleontology and Evolution, Jepsen, G. L. et al. (eds.) New York: Atheneum (1963; orig. publ. 1949): 365–390.Google Scholar
Wright, S. (1977), Evolution and the Genetics of Populations, Vol. 3. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar