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The Levels of Selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Robert Brandon
Robert Brandon*
Affiliation:
Duke University
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Extract

It is a mistake to suppose that the units of selection controversy in biology centers around a single question. In this paper I will take Wimsatt's recent work (1980 and 1981) as defining the question ‘What are the units of selection?’. I will show that there is another important question, what I will call the levels of selection question, separable from the first but easily confused with it. Finally, I will try to show why the levels of selection question is important.

First I must make a terminological point. In this paper I will adopt the distinction between fitness and adaptedness. I will not defend the distinction here since that has been done elsewhere (Brandon 1978 and 1981), but I will briefly indicate what the distinction is. ‘Fitness’ in this usage refers to actual reproductive success. ‘Adaptedness’ refers to an expected fitness value, in the mathematical sense of expected value.

Type
Part VIII. Levels of Explanation in Biology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1982 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1982 , 1982 , pp. 315 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1982

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References

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