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There Is No Asymmetry of Identity Assumptions in the Debate over Selection and Individuals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Casey Helgeson
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Abstract

A long-running dispute concerns which adaptation-related explananda natural selection can be said to explain. (The issue is conceptual—not empirical—and orthogonal adaptationism.) At issue are explananda of the form: why a given individual organism has a given adaptation rather than that same individual having another trait. It is broadly agreed that one must be ready to back up a “no” answer with an appropriate theory of trans-world identity for individuals. I argue, against the conventional wisdom, that the same is true for a “yes” answer. My conclusion recasts the landscape and opens the door to a potential resolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 82 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 21 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

For discussion and advice on several precursors to this article I heartily thank John Basl, Joshua Filler, Dan Hausman, Marek Kwiatkowski, Brian McCloon, Bence Nanay, Larry Shapiro, Elliott Sober, and Naftali Weinberger. Comments from three referees also improved the article.

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