Razeto-Barry, Pablo (Author)
Frick, Ramiro (Author)
The explanatory role of natural selection is one of the long-term debates in evolutionary biology. Nevertheless, the consensus has been slippery because conceptual confusions and the absence of a unified, formal causal model that integrates different explanatory scopes of natural selection. In this study we attempt to examine two questions: (i) What can the theory of natural selection explain? and (ii) Is there a causal or explanatory model that integrates all natural selection explananda? For the first question, we argue that five explananda have been assigned to the theory of natural selection and that four of them may be actually considered explananda of natural selection. For the second question, we claim that a probabilistic conception of causality and the statistical relevance concept of explanation are both good models for understanding the explanatory role of natural selection. We review the biological and philosophical disputes about the explanatory role of natural selection and formalize some explananda in probabilistic terms using classical results from population genetics. Most of these explananda have been discussed in philosophical terms but some of them have been mixed up and confused. We analyze and set the limits of these problems.
...More
Book
Creath, Richard;
Maienschein, Jane;
(2000)
Biology and epistemology
(/isis/citation/CBB000110573/)
Article
Pierrick Bourrat;
(2020)
Natural selection and the reference grain problem
(/isis/citation/CBB530242611/)
Article
Glymour, Bruce;
(1999)
Population Level Causation and a Unified Theory of Natural Selection
(/isis/citation/CBB000111011/)
Article
Pallitto, Nahuel;
Folguera, Guillermo;
(2012)
Cambios y continuidades: la ecología del comportamiento y su relación con la síntesis biológica extendida
(/isis/citation/CBB001212026/)
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/)
Article
Sober, Elliott;
Hecht Orzack, Steven;
(2003)
Common Ancestry and Natural Selection
(/isis/citation/CBB000410733/)
Article
Birch, Jonathan;
(2012)
The Negative View of Natural Selection
(/isis/citation/CBB001221639/)
Article
André Ariew;
Collin Rice;
Yasha Rohwer;
(2015)
Autonomous-Statistical Explanations and Natural Selection
(/isis/citation/CBB996717651/)
Thesis
Eugene, Earnshaw-Whyte.;
(2012)
Modeling Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001567349/)
Article
Rodríguez, Xavier de Donato;
(2012)
The Structure of Idealization in Biological Theories: The Case of the Wright-Fisher Model
(/isis/citation/CBB001252357/)
Thesis
Valles, Sean A.;
(2010)
Explaining the Evolution of Common Genetic Disease
(/isis/citation/CBB001567174/)
Article
Matthewson, John;
(2011)
Trade-Offs in Model-Building: A More Target-Oriented Approach
(/isis/citation/CBB001024175/)
Chapter
Sober, Elliott;
(2007)
Sex Ratio Theory, Ancient and Modern: An Eighteenth-Century Debate about Intelligent Design and the Development of Models in Evolutionary Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB000774728/)
Article
Ben Bradley;
(2022)
Natural selection according to Darwin: Cause or effect?
(/isis/citation/CBB830954057/)
Article
Jonathan Birch;
(2019)
Inclusive fitness as a criterion for improvement
(/isis/citation/CBB535828538/)
Article
José Díez;
Pablo Lorenzano;
(2015)
Are natural selection explanatory models a priori?
(/isis/citation/CBB225246599/)
Article
Daniel J. Molter;
(2022)
Bivalent Selection and Graded Darwinian Individuality
(/isis/citation/CBB094549170/)
Article
Mameli, Matteo;
(2004)
Nongenetic Selection and Nongenetic Inheritance
(/isis/citation/CBB000410746/)
Article
Ariew, André;
(2003)
Ernst Mayr's “Ultimate/Proximate” Distinction Reconsidered and Reconstructed
(/isis/citation/CBB000340589/)
Be the first to comment!