The theory of natural selection is a rich systematization of biological knowledge without a first principle. When formulations of a proposed principle of natural selection are examined carefully, each is seen to be exhaustively analyzable into a proposition about sources of fitness and a proposition about consequences of fitness. But whenever the fitness of an organic variety is well denned in a given biological situation, its sources are local contingencies together with the background of laws from disciplines other than the theory of natural selection; and the consequences of fitness for the long range fate of organic varieties are essentially applications of probability theory. Hence there is no role and no need for a principle of the theory of natural selection, and any generalities that may hold in that theory are derivative rather than fundamental.

THESIS

The main thesis of this paper is that the biological theory of natural selection does not contain a general principle of natural selection and has no need for such a principle.

This thesis in no way denies that natural selection is one of the primary mechanisms shaping the constitution of the biosphere; and in no way is it an endorsement of any of the well-known alternatives to or modifications of the theory of natural selection, such as creationism, Lamarckianism, or orthogenesis. Nor does my thesis entail that no general principles are to be found in the theory of evolution as a whole, of which the theory of natural selection is a part.