Article ID: CBB670708995

Chances and Propensities in Evo-Devo (2022)

unapi

While the notion of chance has been central in discussions over the probabilistic nature of natural selection and genetic drift, its role in the production of variants on which populational sampling takes place has received much less philosophical attention. This article discusses the concept of chance in evolution in the light of contemporary work in evo-devo. We distinguish different levels at which randomness and chance can be defined in this context, and argue that recent research on variability and evolvability demands a causal understanding of variational probabilities under which development acquires a creative, rather than a constraining role in evolution. We then provide a propensity interpretation of variational probabilities that solves a conceptual confusion between causal properties, variational probabilities and extant variation present in the literature, and explore some metaphysical consequences that follow from our interpretation, specifically with regards to the nature of developmental types.

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Authors & Contributors
McLoone, Brian
Louis, Ard A.
Conley, Brandon A.
Fábregas-Tejeda, Alejandro
Christopher Lean
Delgado, Abigail Nieves
Concepts
Philosophy of biology
Evolutionary developmental biology
Evolution
Biology
Variation (biology)
Genetics
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
18th century
20th century, early
Places
Germany
Institutions
Human Genome Project
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