Abstract
In "Some Criticism of the Contextual
Approach, and a Few Proposals" in Biological Theory,
Brian McLoone discusses some of the points about the
contextual approach that I made in a recent paper. Besides
offering a reply to McLoone’s comments on my paper, in
this article I show why McLoone’s discussion of the two
main frameworks for thinking about group selection—the
contextual and the Price approach—is partly misguided. In
particular, I show that one of McLoone’s main arguments
against the contextual approach is missing the target and
that one of his (and Elliott Sober’s) arguments in defense
of the Price approach is flawed. Criticizing these arguments
will help me present an entirely different picture
than McLoone’s of the current status of multilevel selection
theory. More precisely, I argue that the idea that we
are dealing with "multilevel selection" in the type of
multigroup cases in which the focal units are the individuals
(and their traits) has recently come under threat.
Finally, I discuss the ways in which this idea might be
salvaged by appealing either to the contextual or to the
Price approach.