Skip Navigation


The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Advance Access originally published online on October 28, 2005
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 2005 56(4):703-725; doi:10.1093/bjps/axi143
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
56/4/703    most recent
axi143v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (3)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Okasha, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2005). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Society for the Philosophy of Science. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Altruism, Group Selection and Correlated Interaction

Samir Okasha

Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, 9 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB Samir.Okasha{at}bris.ac.uk

Group selection is one acknowledged mechanism for the evolution of altruism. It is well known that for altruism to spread by natural selection, interactions must be correlated; that is, altruists must tend to associate with one another. But does group selection itself require correlated interactions? Two possible arguments for answering this question affirmatively are explored. The first is a bad argument, for it rests on a product/process confusion. The second is a more subtle argument, whose validity (or otherwise) turns on issues concerning the meaning of multi-level selection and how it should be modelled. A cautious defence of the second argument is offered.

  1. Introduction
  2. Multi-level selection and the evolution of altruism
  3. Price's equation and multi-level selection
  4. Contextual analysis and multi-level selection
  5. The neighbour approach
  6. Recapitulation and conclusion


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Br J Philos SciHome page
B. Glymour
Correlated Interaction and Group Selection
Brit J Philos Sci, December 1, 2008; 59(4): 835 - 855.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Br J Philos SciHome page
P. Godfrey-Smith
Varieties of Population Structure and the Levels of Selection
Brit J Philos Sci, March 1, 2008; 59(1): 25 - 50.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 GeneticsHome page
P. Bijma, W. M. Muir, and J. A. M. Van Arendonk
Multilevel Selection 1: Quantitative Genetics of Inheritance and Response to Selection
Genetics, January 1, 2007; 175(1): 277 - 288.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.