Natural selection and history |
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Authors: | John Beatty Eric Cyr Desjardins |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, 1866 Main Mall, Buchanan E-370, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada |
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Abstract: | In “Spandrels,” Gould and Lewontin criticized what they took to be an all-too-common conviction, namely, that adaptation to
current environments determines organic form. They stressed instead the importance of history. In this paper, we elaborate upon their concerns by appealing to other writings in which those issues are treated in greater
detail. Gould and Lewontin’s combined emphasis on history was three-fold. First, evolution by natural selection does not start
from scratch, but always refashions preexisting forms. Second, preexisting forms are refashioned by the selection of whatever
mutational variations happen to arise: the historical order of mutations needs to be taken into account. Third, the order
of environments and selection pressures also needs to be taken into account. |
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Keywords: | Adaptationism History Historicity Chance Contingency |
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