Sober, Elliott R. (Author)
Hecht Orzack, Steven (Author)
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Volume: 54
Pages: 423--437
We explore the evidential relationships that connect two standard claims of modern evolutionary biology. The hypothesis of common ancestry (which says that all organisms now on earth trace back to a single progenitor) and the hypothesis of natural selection (which says that natural selection has been an important influence on the traits exhibited by organisms) are logically independent; however, this leaves open whether testing one requires assumptions about the status of the other. Darwin noted that an extreme version of adaptationism would undercut the possibility of making inferences about common ancestry. Here we develop a converse claim-hypotheses that assert that natural selection has been an important influence on trait values are untestable unless supplemented by suitable background assumptions. The fact of common ancestry and a claim about quantitative genetics together suffice to render such hypotheses testable. Furthermore, we see no plausible alternative to these assumptions; we hypothesize that they are necessary as well as sufficient for adaptive hypotheses to be tested. This point has important implications for biological practice, since biologists standardly assume that adaptive hypotheses predict trait associations among tip species. Another consequence is that adaptive hypotheses cannot be confirmed or disconfirmed by a trait value that is universal within a single species, if that trait value deviates even slightly from the optimum. 1 Two Darwinian hypotheses 2 Logical independence 3 How adaptive hypotheses bear on the tree of life hypothesis 4 How the tree of life hypothesis bears on adaptive hypotheses 5 What do adaptive hypotheses predict? 6 Common ancestry and quantitative genetics to the rescue 7 Conclusion
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Pierrick Bourrat;
(2020)
Natural selection and the reference grain problem
(/isis/citation/CBB530242611/)
Article
Birch, Jonathan;
(2012)
The Negative View of Natural Selection
(/isis/citation/CBB001221639/)
Article
Miguel García-Valdecasas;
Terrence W. Deacon;
(2024)
Biological functions are causes, not effects: A critique of selected effects theories
(/isis/citation/CBB854874311/)
Article
Jonathan Birch;
(2019)
Inclusive fitness as a criterion for improvement
(/isis/citation/CBB535828538/)
Article
James DiFrisco;
(2017)
Functional explanation and the problem of functional equivalence
(/isis/citation/CBB378954890/)
Article
Vermaas, Pieter E.;
Houkes, Wybo;
(2003)
Ascribing Functions to Technical Artefacts: A Challenge to Etiological Accounts of Functions
(/isis/citation/CBB000410725/)
Article
Matthen, Mohan;
(2003)
Is Sex Really Necessary? And Other Questions for Lewens
(/isis/citation/CBB000410727/)
Thesis
Goldstein, Adam;
(2006)
Random Drift: Chance and Explanation in Evolutionary Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001561699/)
Article
Cédric Paternotte;
(2020)
Social evolution and the individual-as-maximising-agent analogy
(/isis/citation/CBB692281691/)
Article
Hugh Desmond;
(2018)
Natural selection, plasticity, and the rationale for largest-scale trends
(/isis/citation/CBB970270245/)
Article
Alan Grafen;
(2019)
Should we ask for more than consistency of Darwinism with Mendelism?
(/isis/citation/CBB453166142/)
Book
Ruse, Michael;
Travis, Joseph;
(2009)
Evolution: The First Four Billion Years
(/isis/citation/CBB001232307/)
Article
Philippe Huneman;
(2019)
Revisiting Darwinian teleology: A case for inclusive fitness as design explanation
(/isis/citation/CBB392966411/)
Article
Brian McLoone;
(2020)
Population and organismal perspectives on trait origins
(/isis/citation/CBB139456486/)
Article
Razeto-Barry, Pablo;
Frick, Ramiro;
(2011)
Probabilistic Causation and the Explanatory Role of Natural Selection
(/isis/citation/CBB001024019/)
Article
André Ariew;
Collin Rice;
Yasha Rohwer;
(2015)
Autonomous-Statistical Explanations and Natural Selection
(/isis/citation/CBB996717651/)
Book
Michael A. Flannery;
(2018)
Nature's Prophet: Alfred Russel Wallace and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology
(/isis/citation/CBB900090701/)
Book
Brzezinski Prestes, Maria Elice;
Martins, Lilian Al-Chueyr Pereira;
Stefano, Waldir;
(2006)
Filosofia e História da Biologia 1
(/isis/citation/CBB000820181/)
Book
Creath, Richard;
Maienschein, Jane;
(2000)
Biology and epistemology
(/isis/citation/CBB000110573/)
Thesis
Eugene, Earnshaw-Whyte.;
(2012)
Modeling Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001567349/)
Be the first to comment!