Martin Barrett, Hayley Clatterbuck, Michael Goldsby, Casey Helgeson, Brian McLoone, Trevor Pearce, Elliott Sober, Reuben Stern & Naftali Weinberger
Biology and Philosophy 27 (5):723-735 (2012)
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Abstract |
In their 2010 book, Biology’s First Law, D. McShea and R. Brandon present a principle that they call ‘‘ZFEL,’’ the zero force evolutionary law. ZFEL says (roughly) that when there are no evolutionary forces acting on a population, the population’s complexity (i.e., how diverse its member organisms are) will increase. Here we develop criticisms of ZFEL and describe a different law of evolution; it says that diversity and complexity do not change when there are no evolutionary causes.
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Reprint years | 2012 |
DOI | 10.1007/s10539-012-9321-7 |
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References found in this work BETA
The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus.Elliott Sober - 1984 - University of Chicago Press.
Biology’s First Law: The Tendency for Diversity and Complexity to Increase in Evolutionary Systems.Daniel W. McShea & Robert N. Brandon - 2010 - University of Chicago Press.
The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus.Robert N. Brandon - 1986 - Philosophical Review 95 (4):614.
The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus.Elliott Sober - 1987 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (3):397-399.
View all 18 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Evolutionary and Newtonian Forces.Christopher Hitchcock & Joel D. Velasco - 2014 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 1:39-77.
Are Natural Selection Explanatory Models a Priori?José Díez & Pablo Lorenzano - 2015 - Biology and Philosophy 30 (6):787-809.
Genetic Drift as a Directional Factor: Biasing Effects and a Priori Predictions.Ariel Jonathan Roffé - 2017 - Biology and Philosophy 32 (4):535-558.
Four Solutions for Four Puzzles.Robert N. Brandon & Daniel W. McShea - 2012 - Biology and Philosophy 27 (5):737-744.
Philosophical Issues in Recent Paleontology.Derek D. Turner - 2014 - Philosophy Compass 9 (7):494-505.
View all 8 citations / Add more citations
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