Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T22:10:26.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Defense of Propensity Interpretations of Fitness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Robert C. Richardson  and
Richard M. Burian
Robert C. Richardson
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati
Richard M. Burian
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

That there was some chance element to evolutionary change was clear even to Darwin (cf. Hodge 1987; also Hodge & Kohn 1986), but chance has assumed a more central role in evolutionary theory since the early decades of this century. It was certainly clear to theoreticians such as Dobzhansky, Wright and Fisher that an adequate evolutionary theory would have to take a stochastic form, though they disagreed as to the significance of chance in evolution (Gigerenzer et al., 1989, ch. 4; Turner 1987). As Beatty explains, the central difference is that in more modern treatments, not only is the origin of variations a matter of chance, their evolutionary fates are also matters of chance (Beatty 1984; cf. Beatty 1987). Probabilistic theories of evolutionary change, as we shall be concerned with them, emphasize this dependency of evolutionary fates on chance, and treat evolutionary change as irreducibly probabilistic.

Type
Part IX. Topics in the Philosophy of Biology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1992 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1992 , 1992 , pp. 349 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

The names of the authors are in reverse alphabetical order; the order has no other significance. RMB was supported by a residential fellowship at the National Humanities Center, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by a Study-Research leave from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. RCR was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and enjoyed the Taft Committee at the University of Cincinnati, and a residence at the Department of Philosophy and Religion at North Carolina State University. We gratefully acknowledge this support. We have benefitted from discussions with Janis Antonovics, John Beatty, Robert Brandon, Greg Cooper, Rebecca German, Donald Gustafson, Brent Mischler, W. E. Morris, and Kelly Smith.

References

Antonovics, J., Ellstrand, N., and Brandon, R. (1988), “Genetic Variation and Environmental Variation: Expectations and Experiments”, in Plant Evolutionary Biology, Gottlieb, L. and Jain, S. (eds.). London: Chapman and Hall, pp.275-303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, S J., and Wade, M J. (1984a), “On the Measurement of Natural and Sexual Selection: Theory”, Evolution 38: 709-719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, S J., and Wade, M J. (1984b), “On the Measurement of Natural and Sexual Selection: Applications”, Evolution 38: 720-734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatty, J. (1984), “Chance and Natural Selection”, Philosophy of Science 51:183-211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatty, J. (1987), “Dobzhansky and Drift: Facts, Values, and Chance in Evolutionary Biology”, in The Probabilistic Revolution, volume 2, Krüger, L. , Gigerenzer, M. and Morgan, S. (eds.). Cambridge: MTT Press/Bradford Books, pp.271-312.Google Scholar
Beatty, J. and Finsen, S. (1989), “Rethinking the Propensity Interpretation: A Peek Inside Pandora's Box”, in Ruse (1989), pp.17-30.Google Scholar
Brandon, R. (1978), “Adaptation and Evolutionary Theory”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biology 9: 181-206; as reprinted in The Nature of Selection, Sober, E. (ed.). Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984b, pp.58-82.Google Scholar
Brandon, R. (1982), “The Levels of Selection”, in PSA 1982, volume 1, Asquith, P. and Nickles, T. (eds.). East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 315-323.Google Scholar
Brandon, R. (1990), Adaptation and Environment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Burian, R. (1983), “Adaptation”, in Dimensions of Darwinism, Grene, M. (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 287-314.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1976), “Irreproducible Results and the Breeding of Pigs (or Nondegenerate Limit Random Variables in Biology)”, BioScience 26: 391-394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dupré, J. (ed.) (1987), The Latest on the Best. Cambridge: M I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Falconer, D.S. (1989), Introduction to Quantitative Genetics, third edition. Essex: Longman.Google Scholar
Fisher, R.A., (1930), The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, R.A. (1938), Statistical Theory of Estimation. Calcutta.Google Scholar
German, R.Z. (1991), “Taxonomic Survivorship Curves”, in Analytical Paleobiology, Gilinsky, N. and Signor, P. (eds.). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, pp. 175-184.Google Scholar
Gigerenzer, G., Swijtink, Z., Porter, T., Daston, L., Beatty, J., and Krüger, L., (1989), | The Empire of Chance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacking, I. (1965), Logic of Statistical Inference. Cambridge: Cambridge ; University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacking, I. (1975), The Emergence of Probability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hodge, M.J.S. (1987), “Natural Selection as a Causal, Empirical, and Probabilistic Theory”, in The Probabilistic Revolution, volume 2,Krüger, L. , Gigerenzer, G. and Morgan, M.S. (eds.). Cambridge: MIT Press/Bradford Books, pp.233-70.Google Scholar
Hodge, M.J.S. and D., Kohn, (1986), “The Immediate Origins of Natural Selection”, in The Darwinian Heritage, D. Kohn (ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp.185-206Google Scholar
Horan, B.. (forthcoming), “The Statistical Character of Evolutionary Theory”.Google Scholar
Kane, T.C., Richardson, R.C., and Fong, D. (1990), “Cave Fauna as Natural Model Systems: Cave Organisms as Model Systems”, in PSA 1990 Volume 1, Fine, A. , Forbes, M. and Wessels, L. (eds.). East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, 151-64.Google Scholar
Kerr, W. and Wright, S. (1954), “Experimental Studies of the Distribution of Gene Frequencies in Very Small Populations of Drosophila melanogaster: I. Forked”, Evolution 8: 172-77.10.1111/j.1558-5646.1954.tb01496.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, D., ed. (1986), The Darwinian Heritage. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Krüger, L. Gigerenzer, G. and Morgan, M.S. (1987) The Probabilistic Revolution. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press/Bradford Books.Google Scholar
Lacey, E.P., Real, L., Antonovics, J., and Heckel, D.G. (1983), “Variance Models in the Study of Life Histories”, The American Naturalist 122:114-131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lande, R. (1976), “Natural Selection and Random Genetic Drift in Phenotypic Evolution”, Evolution 30: 314-334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levins, R., and Lewontin, R. (1985), The Dialectical Biologist. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R.C. (1985), “Population Genetics”, Annual Review of Genetics 19:81-102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
May, R. (1972), “Limit Cycles in Predator-Prey Communities”, Science 238: 900-902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, R., (1973), Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Maynard Smith, J., (1982), Evolution and the Theory of Games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, S. and Beatty, J. (1979), “The Propensity Interpretation of Fitness”, Philosophy of Science 46: 263-288; as reprinted in Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, Sober, E. (ed.). Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984, pp.36-57.Google Scholar
Prout, T., (1971a), “The Relation Between Fitness Components and Population Prediction in Drosophila I. The Estimation of Fitness Components”, Genetics 68: 127-149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prout, T. (1971b), “The Relation Between Fitness Components and Population Prediction in Drosophila II. Population Prediction”, Genetics 68: 151-167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenberg, A. (1983), “Fitness”, The Journal of Philosophy 80: 457-473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, A. (1985), The Structure of Biological Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roughgarden, J. (1979), Theory of Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology: An Introduction. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. ed.(l989),What the Philosophy of Biology Is. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sepkoski, J.J. (1991), “Population Biology Models in Macroevolution”, in Analytical Paleobiology, Gilinsky, N. and Signor, P. (eds.). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, pp.136-156.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1984a), The Nature of Selection. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1984b), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology: An Anthology. Cambridge: MIT Press/Bradford Books.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1992), “Screening-Off and the Units of Selection”, Philosophy of Science 59:142-152.Google Scholar
Turner, J.R.G. (1987), “Random Genetic Drift, R.A. Fisher, and the Oxford School of Ecological Genetics”, in Krüger, Gigerenzer and Morgan (1987), volume 2, 313-354.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L., (1973), “A New Evolutionary Law>”, Evolutionary Theory 1:1-30.Google Scholar
Wright, S. (1931), “Evolution in Mendelian Populations”, Genetics 16: 97-159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, S.(1932), “The Roles of Mutation, Inbreeding, Crossbreeding, and Selection”, Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics 1: 356-366.Google Scholar