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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 1995 46(1):59-80; doi:10.1093/bjps/46.1.59
© 1995 by British Society for the Philosophy of Science
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Pruning the Tree of Life

Karen Neander

Philosophy Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University 0200 Canberra, ACT, Australia

Some (eg. Elliott Sober) argue that natural selection does not explain the genotypic arid phenotypic properties of individuals. On this view, natural selection explains the adaptedness of individuals, not by explaining why the individuals that exist have the adaptations they do, but rather by explaining why the individuals that exist are the ones with those adaptations. This paper argues that this ‘Negative’ view of natural selection ignores the fact that natural selection is a cumulative selection process. So understood, it explains how the genetic sequences that individuals inherit and that are responsible for their complex (and co-adapted) adaptations first arose in the gene-pool.


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