Skip Navigation


The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Advance Access originally published online on November 14, 2006
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 2006 57(4):627-653; doi:10.1093/bjps/axl025
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
57/4/627    most recent
axl025v1
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 (10)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Millstein, R. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2006). 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

Natural Selection as a Population-Level Causal Process

Roberta L. Millstein

Department of Philosophy University of California, Davis One Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616, USA RLMillstein{at}UCDavis.edu


  Abstract

Recent discussions in the philosophy of biology have brought into question some fundamental assumptions regarding evolutionary processes, natural selection in particular. Some authors argue that natural selection is nothing but a population-level, statistical consequence of lower-level events (Matthen and Ariew [2002]; Walsh et al. [2002]). On this view, natural selection itself does not involve forces. Other authors reject this purely statistical, population-level account for an individual-level, causal account of natural selection (Bouchard and Rosenberg [2004]). I argue that each of these positions is right in one way, but wrong in another; natural selection indeed takes place at the level of populations, but it is a causal process nonetheless.

  1. Introduction
  2. A brief justification of population-level causality
    2.1 Frequency-dependent selection
    2.2 Accounts of causation
  3. The montane willow leaf beetle: a causal story
  4. The montane willow leaf beetle: a population-level story
    4.1 Response to ‘naïve individualism’
    4.2 Response to ‘sophisticated individualism’
  5. 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
P. Gildenhuys
An Explication of the Causal Dimension of Drift
Brit J Philos Sci, September 1, 2009; 60(3): 521 - 555.
[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.