Deep Conventionalism about Evolutionary Groups

Philosophy of Science 80 (5):971-982 (2013)
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Abstract

We argue for a new conventionalism about many kinds of evolutionary groups, including clades, cohesive units, and populations. This rejects a consensus, which says that given any one of the many legitimate grouping concepts, only objective biological facts determine whether a collection is such a group. Surprisingly, being any one kind of evolutionary group typically depends on which of many incompatible values are taken by suppressed variables. This is a novel pluralism underlying most any one group concept, rather than a familiar pluralism claiming many concepts are legitimate. Consequently, we must help biological facts determine grouphood, even when given a single grouping concept.

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Author Profiles

Joel D. Velasco
Texas Tech University
Matt Barker
Concordia University

Citations of this work

Indigenous and Scientific Kinds.David Ludwig - 2017 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68 (1).
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Population Pluralism and Natural Selection.Jacob Stegenga - 2016 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 67 (1):1-29.
Population Pluralism and Natural Selection.Jacob Stegenga - 2014 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (1):axu003.

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References found in this work

Species.Philip Kitcher - 1984 - Philosophy of Science 51 (2):308-333.
Does 'race' have a future?Philip Kitcher - 2007 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 35 (4):293–317.
Making populations: Bounding genes in space and in time.Lisa Gannett - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (5):989-1001.

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