Adaptationism And Optimality

Adaptationism and Optimality The debate over the relative importance of natural selection as compared to other forces affecting the evolution of organisms is a long-standing and central controversy in evolutionary biology. Adaptationism is the view that natural selection is so important, and nonselective forces so unimportant, that accurate explanations and predictions of the phenotypes of organisms can be obtained by simplified models in which selection is represented and nonselective forces are ignored. Adaptationists and their critics disagree about this proposition concerning the history of life, and they also disagree about the methodologies that are needed to address this biological question. Many questions remain unresolved, and the terms of the debate are still sometimes unclear. Adaptationism and Optimality presents an up-to-date view of this controversy and reflects the dramatic changes in our understanding of evolution that have occurred in the past 20 years. The volume combines contributions from biologists and philosophers and offers a systematic treatment of foundational, conceptual, and methodological issues. The essays examine recent developments in topics such as phylogenetic analysis, the theory of optimality and ESS models, and the methodology of hypothesis testing in evolutionary biology. The contributors’ disagreement on fundamental aspects of this subject represents the diversity of opinion that makes this controversy so highly charged. These essays are intended to provide useful advice to “biologists in the trenches” but also to assess the larger theoretical and conceptual issues that form the basis of the current controversy. This volume will serve to substantially advance the debate over adaptationism. It will be of interest to biologists, philosophers and historians of biology, anthropologists, psychologists, and cognitive scientists. Steven Hecht Orzack is President and Research Scientist at the Fresh Pond Research Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Elliott Sober is Hans Reichenbach Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology General Editor Michael Ruse Florida State University Advisory Board Michael Donoghue Yale University Jean Gayon University of Paris Jonathan Hodge University of Leeds Jane Maienschein Arizona State University Jesús Mosterín Instituto de Filosofía (Spanish Research Council) Elliott Sober University of Wisconsin Alfred I. Tauber The Immune Self: Theory or Metaphor? Elliott Sober From a Biological Point of View Robert Brandon Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology Peter Godfrey-Smith Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature William A. Rottschaefer The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency Sahotra Sarkar Genetics and Reductionism Jean Gayon Darwinism’s Struggle for Survival Jane Maienschein and Michael Ruse (eds.) Biology and the Foundation of Ethics Jack Wilson Biological Individuality Richard Creath and Jane Maienschein (eds.) Biology and Epistemology Alexander Rosenberg Darwinism in Philosophy, Social Science and Policy Peter Beurton, Raphael Falk, and Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (eds.) The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution David Hull Science and Selection James G. Lennox Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology Ma