The non-existence of a principle of natural selection |
| |
Authors: | Shimony Abner |
| |
Affiliation: | (1) Departments of Philosophy and Physics, Boston University, 02215 Boston, MA, USA |
| |
Abstract: | The theory of natural selection is a rich systematization of biological knowledge without a first principle. When formulations
of a proposed principle of natural selection are examined carefully, each is seen to be exhaustively analyzable into a proposition
about sources of fitness and a proposition about consequences of fitness. But whenever the fitness of an organic variety is
well defined in a given biological situation, its sources are local contingencies together with the background of laws from
disciplines other than the theory of natural selection; and the consequences of fitness for the long range fate of organic
varieties are essentially applications of probability theory. Hence there is no role and no need for a principle of the theory
of natural selection, and any generalities that may hold in that theory are derivative rather than fundamental. |
| |
Keywords: | Natural Selection Evolution Principle Probability Propensity |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|