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Some Adaptations Were Not Positive Causal Factors for Reproductive Success
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Abstract
Sober develops an account of adaptations on which they must have been positive causal factors for reproductive success. Glymour defends an account of a proper subset of adaptations—adaptations to particular environmental conditions—on which traits must interact in a special way with adapting conditions to cause reproductive success. These theories render conflicting judgments about which traits count as adaptations in some interesting cases. In this article I explore one such case and argue that we ought to replace the notion of adaptation qua positive causal factor with a novel notion of adaptation.
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- Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association
Footnotes
†
I wish to thank Valerie Racine, Bruce Glymour, Brad Armendt, Manfred Laubichler (and his lab), Beckett Sterner, J. J. LaTourelle, and the anonymous referees; their comments have much improved the article.
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