IsisCB Explore

Thesis ID: CBB001567619

Three Perspectives on Multilevel Selection: An Experimental, Historical, and Synthetic Analysis of Group-Level Selection (2014)

Laubichler, Manfred Dietrich
Arizona State University
Gadau, Juergen
Armendt, Brad
Lynch, John
Collins, James P.
Publication date: 2014
Language: English

ISBN: 9781321387940

Publication Date: 2014
Edition Details: Advisor: Collins, James P; Committee Members: Gadau, Juergen, Laubichler, Manfred, Armendt, Brad, Lynch, John.
Physical Details: 140 pp.

Outside Links

Genetics Biology Experimental biology Group selection Natural selection 20th century, late

During the 1960s, the long-standing idea that traits or behaviors could be explained by natural selection acting on traits that persisted "for the good of the group" prompted a series of debates about group-level selection and the effectiveness with which natural selection could act at or across multiple levels of biological organization. For some this topic remains contentious, while others consider the debate settled, even while disagreeing about when and how resolution occurred, raising the question: "Why have these debates continued?" Here I explore the biology, history, and philosophy of the possibility of natural selection operating at levels of biological organization other than the organism by focusing on debates about group-level selection that have occurred since the 1960s. In particular, I use experimental, historical, and synthetic methods to review how the debates have changed, and whether different uses of the same words and concepts can lead to different interpretations of the same experimental data. I begin with the results of a group-selection experiment I conducted using the parasitoid wasp Nasonia, and discuss how the interpretation depends on how one conceives of and defines a "group." Then I review the history of the group selection controversy and argue that this history is best interpreted as multiple, interrelated debates rather than a single continuous debate. Furthermore, I show how the aspects of these debates that have changed the most are related to theoretical content and empirical data, while disputes related to methods remain largely unchanged. Synthesizing this material, I distinguish four different "approaches" to the study of multilevel selection based on the questions and methods used by researchers, and I use the results of the Nasonia experiment to discuss how each approach can lead to different interpretations of the same experimental data. I argue that this realization can help to explain why debates about group and multilevel selection have persisted for nearly sixty years. Finally, the conclusions of this dissertation apply beyond evolutionary biology by providing an illustration of how key concepts can change over time, and how failing to appreciate this fact can lead to ongoing controversy within a scientific field.

...More

Description Cited in Dissertation Abstracts International-B 76/04(E), Oct 2015. Proquest Document ID: 1640906470.

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB001567619

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Jeler, Ciprian; (2015)
Is There Such a Thing as “Group Selection” in the Contextual Analysis Framework? (/p/isis/citation/CBB001510252/)

Article Cédric Paternotte; (2020)
Social evolution and the individual-as-maximising-agent analogy (/p/isis/citation/CBB692281691/)

Thesis Green, Lisa Anne; (2012)
Science for Survival: The Modern Synthesis of Evolution and the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (/p/isis/citation/CBB001567386/)

Article Gall, Yasha M.; Konashev, Mikhail B.; (2001)
The Discovery of Gramicidin S: The Intellectual Transformation of G. F. Gause from Biologist to Researcher of Antibiotics and on Its Meaning for the Fate of Russian Genetics (/p/isis/citation/CBB000770067/)

Chapter Weber, Marcel; (2007)
Redesigning the Fruit Fly: The Molecularization of Drosophila (/p/isis/citation/CBB000900054/)

Book Cain, Joe; Ruse, Michael; Burkhardt, Frederick; (2009)
Descended from Darwin: Insights into the History of Evolutionary Studies, 1900--1970 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001020901/)

Book Brush, Stephen G.; (2009)
Choosing Selection: The Revival of Natural Selection in Anglo-American Evolutionary Biology, 1930--1970 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001020903/)

Article Mameli, Matteo; (2004)
Nongenetic Selection and Nongenetic Inheritance (/p/isis/citation/CBB000410746/)

Article Hall, Brian K.; (2006)
“Evolutionist and Missionary,” the Reverend John Thomas Gulick (1832--1923). Part I: Cumulative Segregation---Geographical Isolation (/p/isis/citation/CBB001230142/)

Article Smit, Harry; (2010)
Darwin's Rehabilitation of Teleology versus Williams' Replacement of Teleology by Natural Selection (/p/isis/citation/CBB001230110/)

Article Alan Grafen; (2019)
Should we ask for more than consistency of Darwinism with Mendelism? (/p/isis/citation/CBB453166142/)

Article Warren J. Ewens; (2019)
Quantifying evolution by natural selection (/p/isis/citation/CBB740058122/)

Book Ruse, Michael; Travis, Joseph; (2009)
Evolution: The First Four Billion Years (/p/isis/citation/CBB001232307/)

Book Brzezinski Prestes, Maria Elice; Martins, Lilian Al-Chueyr Pereira; Stefano, Waldir; (2006)
Filosofia e História da Biologia 1 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000820181/)

Article Rowlinson, Matthew; (2011)
Foreign Bodies; or, How Did Darwin Invent the Symptom? (/p/isis/citation/CBB001035039/)

Article Hall, Brian K.; (2006)
“Evolutionist and Missionary,” the Reverend John Thomas Gulick (1832--1923). Part II. Coincident or Ontogenetic Selection---The Baldwin Effect (/p/isis/citation/CBB001230143/)

Article Müller-Wille, Staffan; (2007)
Hybrids, Pure Cultures, and Pure Lines: From Nineteenth-Century Biology to Twentieth-Century Genetics (/p/isis/citation/CBB000831420/)

Thesis Pearce, Trevor Richard; (2010)
“A Perfect Chaos”: Organism-Environment Interaction and the Causal Factors of Evolution (/p/isis/citation/CBB001562740/)

Article Angner, Erik; (2002)
The History of Hayek's Theory of Cultural Evolution (/p/isis/citation/CBB000770680/)

Article Lloyd, Elisabeth A.; (2000)
Groups on Groups: Some Dynamics and Possible Resolution of the Units of Selection Debates in Evolutionary Biology (/p/isis/citation/CBB000111063/)