The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus by Sober Elliott

Author:Sober, Elliott [Sober, Elliott]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2014-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

PART II

The Group Above and the Gene Below

Chapter 7

Beginnings

In the next three chapters, the units of selection problem will be set forth as a conceptual puzzle. The goal is not to decide what the unit of selection in fact is (or what the units are) but to understand what it means for something to be a unit of selection. Chapter 7 plays an almost totally negative role in this effort. After briefly surveying the historical background of the problem in Section 7.1, I describe a series of puzzles and try to expose a number of fallacies. The cumulative effect will, I hope, be one of constructive confusion. The confusion should arise from seeing that biologists have often talked at cross purposes about the problem of the units of selection. The constructive contribution should come from assembling a number of requirements that an adequate view of the biological problem should obey.

I should say at the outset that my criticisms are aimed all over the map. In Sections 7.3 to 7.5, I challenge several arguments that have been made in favor of the view that the single gene is the unit of selection. However, in Sections 7.2 and 7.8, I criticize certain conceptions of what a unit of selection is that lend support to the idea that higher-level units (like whole organisms or groups) are units of selection as well. Since no positive thesis will be advanced in this chapter, I will be able to alienate reductionists and antireductionists alike.

The critique provided in this chapter clears the ground, so that a positive foundation can be laid in the next. In Chapter 8, I try to clarify the concept of cause and to show how this idea can be used to make sense of the units of selection controversy. Chapter 9 continues this project, with detailed application of my causal analysis to several theoretical proposals that are currently attracting considerable biological attention.

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