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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 1996 47(4):511-532; doi:10.1093/bjps/47.4.511
© 1996 by British Society for the Philosophy of Science
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The Historical Turn in the Study of Adaptation

Paul E. Griffiths

Department of Philosophy University of Otago PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

A number of philosophers and ‘evolutionary psychologists’ have argued that attacks on adaptationism in contemporary biology are misguided. These thinkers identify anti-adaptationism with advocacy of non-adaptive modes of explanation. They overlook the influence of anti-adaptationism in the development of more rigorous forms of adaptive explanation. Many biologists who reject adaptationism do not reject Darwinism. Instead, they have pioneered the contemporary historical turn in the study of adaptation. One real issue which remains unresolved amongst these methodological advances is the nature of ‘phylogenetic inertia’. To what extent is an adaptive explanation needed for the persistence of a trait as well as its origin?.


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