Premium
Levels of Selection Are Artefacts of Different Fitness Temporal Measures
Author(s) -
Bourrat Pierrick
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ratio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-9329
pISSN - 0034-0006
DOI - 10.1111/rati.12053
Subject(s) - selection (genetic algorithm) , perspective (graphical) , population , product (mathematics) , natural selection , epistemology , psychology , computer science , sociology , artificial intelligence , philosophy , mathematics , demography , geometry
In this paper I argue against the claim, recently put forward by some philosophers of biology and evolutionary biologists, that there can be two or more ontologically distinct levels of selection. I show by comparing the fitness of individuals with that of collectives of individuals in the same environment and over the same period of time – as required to decide if one or more levels of selection is acting in a population – that the selection of collectives is a by‐product of selection at the individual level; thus, talking about two or more levels of selection represents merely a different perspective on one and the same process.