Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:35:51.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Critical Review of Philosophical Work on the Units of Selection Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Elliott Sober  and
David Sloan Wilson
Elliott Sober*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, University of Wisconsin
David Sloan Wilson
Affiliation:
Biology Department, Binghamton University
*
‡Send reprint requests to Elliott Sober, Philosophy Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The evolutionary problem of the units of selection has elicited a good deal of conceptual work from philosophers. We review this work to determine where the issues now stand.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 61 , Issue 4 , December 1994 , pp. 534 - 555
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1994

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

†

We thank the National Science Foundation for financial support (NSF Grant SBE92-12294). We also are grateful to Robert Brandon, Peter Godfrey-Smith, David Hull, Richard Lewontin, and the anonymous referee of this journal for useful suggestions.

References

Brandon, R. (1984), “The Levels of Selection”, reprinted in Brandon, R. and Burian, R., (eds.), Genes, Organisms, and Populations: Controversies Over the Units of Selection. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 133–141.Google Scholar
Brandon, R. (1990), Organism and Environment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Brandon, R.; Antonovics, J.; Burian, R.; Carson, S.; Cooper, G.; Davies, P.; Horvath, C.; Mishler, B.; Richardson, R.; Smith, K.; Thrall, P. (1994), “Discussion: Sober on Brandon on Screening-Off and the Levels of Selection”, Philosophy of Science 61: 475–486.10.1086/289815CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buss, L. (1987), The Evolution of Individuality. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cassidy, J. (1978), “Philosophical Aspects of the Group Selection Controversy”, Philosophy of Science 45: 575–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1976), The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1982), The Extended Phenotype: The Gene as the Unit of Selection. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N. and Gould, S. (1972), “Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism”, in Schopf, T., (ed.), Models in Paleobiology. San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper & Company, pp. 82–115.Google Scholar
Gatens-Robinson, E. (1991), “Dewey and the Feminist Successor Science Project”, Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 27, San Francisco: Freeman, pp. 82–115.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. (1958), The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. 2d ed. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, P. (1992), “Additivity and the Units of Selection”, in Hull, D., Forbes, M., and Okruhlik, K., (eds.), Erkenntniss., vol. 1. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 315–328.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, P. and Lewontin, R. (1993), “The Dimensions of Selection”, Philosophy of Science 60: 373–395.Google Scholar
Gould, S. (1980), “Caring Groups and Selfish Genes”, in The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections on Natural History. New York: Norton, pp. 85–92.Google Scholar
Griesmer, J. and Wade, M. (1988), “Laboratory Models, Causal Explanations, and Group Selection”, Biology and Philosophy 3: 67–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haig, D. (1993), “Genetic Conflicts in Human Pregnancy”, Quarterly Review of Biology 68: 495–532.10.1086/418300CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, W. (1964), “The Genetic Theory of Social Behavior I and II”, Journal of Theoretical Biology 7: 1–52.10.1016/0022-5193(64)90038-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, D. (1980), “Individuality and Selection”, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 311–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, D. (1981), “The Units of Evolution—A Metaphysical Essay”, in Jensen, U. and Harré, R., (eds.), U. Jensen and R. Harré, Sussex: Harvester Press, pp. 23–44.Google Scholar
Hull, D. (1988), Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P.; Sterelny, K.; Waters, W. (1990), “The Illusory Riches of Sober's Monism”, Journal of Philosophy 87: 158–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewontin, R. (1974), The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R. (1992), Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA. New York: Harper Collin Publishers.Google Scholar
Lloyd, E. (1986), “Evaluation of Evidence in Group Selection Debates”, in Fine, A. and Machamer, P., (eds.), PSA 1986, vol. 1. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 483–493.Google Scholar
Lloyd, E. (1988), The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, E. and Gould, S. (1993), “Species Selection on Variability”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 90: 595–599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maynard Smith, J. (1987), “How to Model Evolution”, in Dupré, J., (ed.), The Latest on the Best: Essays on Evolution and Optimality, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 119–131.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1963), Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, E. (1990), “Myxoma and Group Selection”, Biologisches Zentrale blatt 109: 453–457.Google Scholar
Mitchell, S. (1987), “Competing Units of Selection?: A Case of Symbiosis”, Philosophy of Science 54: 351–367.10.1086/289388CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oyama, S. (1985), The Ontogeny of Information: Developmental Systems and Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1956), The Direction of Time. Edited by Reichenbach, M. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, R. (1985), “Biological Reductionism and Genic Selectionism”, in Fetzer, J., (ed.), Sociobiology and Epistemology. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 133–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridley, M. (1993), Evolution. Boston: Blackwells Scientific.Google Scholar
Seeley, T. (1989), “The Honey Bee Colony as a Superorganism”, American Scientist, Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 133–160.Google Scholar
Ridley, M. (1993), Evolution. Boston: Blackwells Scientific.Google Scholar
Seeley, T. (1989), “The Honey Bee Colony as a Superorganism”, American Scientist 77: 546–553.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1981), “Holism, Individualism, and the Units of Selection”, in Giere, R. and Asquith, P., (eds.), PSA 1980, vol. 2. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 93–121.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1984), The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1990a), “Let's Razor Ockham's Razor”, in Knowles, D., (ed.), Explanation and Its Limits. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 73–94.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1990b), “The Poverty of Pluralism”, Journal of Philosophy, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 73–94.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1990b), “The Poverty of Pluralism”, Journal of Philosophy 87: 151–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sober, E. (1991), “Organisms, Individuals, and Units of Selection”, in Tauber, A., (ed.), Organism and the Origins of Self. Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 273–296.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1992), “Screening-Off and the Units of Selection”, Philosophy of Science, Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 273–296.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1992), “Screening-Off and the Units of Selection”, Philosophy of Science 59: 142–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sober, E. (1993), Philosophy of Biology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Sober, E. and Lewontin, R. (1982), “Artifact, Cause, and Genic Selection”, Philosophy of Science 47: 157–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, S. (1979), Macroevolution: Pattern and Process. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Sterelny, K. and Kitcher, P. (1988), “The Return of the Gene”, Journal of Philosophy 85: 339–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trivers, R. (1972), “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism”, Quarterly Review of Biology 46: 35–57.10.1086/406755CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, K. (1991), “The Units of Selection and the Bases of Selection”, Philosophy of Science 58: 417–435.10.1086/289626CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waters, K. (1991), “Tempered Realism about the Forces of Selection”, Philosophy of Science 58: 553–573.10.1086/289640CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, G. C. (1966), Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, G. C. (1992), Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. S. (1988), “Holism and Reductionism in Evolutionary Biology”, Oikos 53: 269–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. S. (1990), “Weak Altruism, Strong Group Selection”, Oikos 59: 135–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. S. and Sober, E. (1989), “Reviving the Superorganism”, Journal of Theoretical Biology 136: 337–356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, D. S. (1994a), “Reintroducing Group Selection to the Human Behavioral Sciences”, Behavior and Brain Sciences 17. In press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. S. (1994b), “Reply to Comments on ‘Introducing Group Selection to the Human Behavioral Sciences‘”, Behavior and Brain Sciences 17. In press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimsatt, W. (1980), “Reductionistic Research Strategies and Their Biases in the Units of Selection Controversy”, in Nickles, T., (ed.), Scientific Discovery: Case Studies, vol. 1. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 213–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. S. (1981), “The Units of Selection and the Structure of the Multi-Level Genome”, in Giere, R. and Asquith, P., (eds.), PSA, vol. 2. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 122–183.Google Scholar