What Selection Can and Cannot Explain: A Reply to Nanay’s Critique of Sober

InThe Nature of Selection, Elliott Sober argued that natural selection is in principle powerless to explain why any individual organism has the traits it does rather than the very same individual having different traits. In this note, I argue that in a recent and prominent critique of Sober’s positi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophy of science 2013-01, Vol.80 (1), p.155-159
Main Author: Helgeson, Casey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological adaptation
Contrafactuals
Evolution
Genotype & phenotype
Nanay, Bence
Natural selection
Philosophical thought
Philosophy of science
Sober, Elliott
Social philosophy
Social theory
Typewriters
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Summary:InThe Nature of Selection, Elliott Sober argued that natural selection is in principle powerless to explain why any individual organism has the traits it does rather than the very same individual having different traits. In this note, I argue that in a recent and prominent critique of Sober’s position, Bence Nanay talks past that position rather than addressing it.
ISSN:0031-8248
1539-767X
DOI:10.1086/668880