Puzzles for ZFEL, McShea and Brandon’s zero force evolutionary law

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology & philosophy 2012-09, Vol.27 (5), p.723-735
Main Authors: Barrett, Martin, Clatterbuck, Hayley, Goldsby, Michael, Helgeson, Casey, McLoone, Brian, Pearce, Trevor, Sober, Elliott, Stern, Reuben, Weinberger, Naftali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Education
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics
Natural selection
Philosophy
Philosophy of Biology
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0169-3867
1572-8404
DOI:10.1007/s10539-012-9321-7