Abstract
Issues concerning the scope and viability of reductionistic explanations in biology have come recently to be discussed under the rubric of controversies over the “units” or “levels” of selection; that is, over the level or levels at which natural selection is properly said to operate. As critics have pointed out, some of the more a priori defenses of genic selectionism, the view that the sole unit of selection is the gene, have failed to demonstrate that genic selectionism provides an adequate explanatory theory. These same critics have concluded that the context dependence of genic effects due to linkage and interaction, and the resulting misrepresentation of underlying causal processes, are the cause of this deficiency. This is incorrect. Advocates of genic selectionism have not denied interaction at any variety of levels. Furthermore, to press that context dependence is sufficient grounds to impugn the explanatory adequacy of genic selectionism is untenable. Recent biological work on the coevolution of traits and historical controversies over the importance of “linkage effects” on the expression of genes suffice to press the point that context dependence is consistent with retaining lower levels of organization. Controversies over the units or levels of selection will be resolved only with due attention to the details of biological models which purport to explain evolution in terms of forces acting on lower level units and to the substantial methodological problems attendant to applying these models to actual biological systems.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Axelrod, R. and Hamilton, W. D.: 1981, ‘The Evolution of Cooperation’, Science 211, 1390–1396.
Bateson, W.: 1913, Problems of Genetics, Yale, New Haven [reproduced, 1979].
Beatty, J.: 1980, ‘Optimal-Design Models and the Strategy of Model Building in Evolutionary Biology’, Philosophy of Science 47, 532–561.
Brandon, R.: 1978, ‘Adaptation and Evolutionary Theory’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 9, 181–206.
Burian, R.: 1983, ‘Adaptation’, in M. Grene (ed.), Dimensions of Darwinism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bridges, C. B.: 1936, ‘The Bar “Gene” a Duplication’, Science 83, 210–211.
Carlson, E. A.: 1966, The Gene: A Critical History, W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia and London.
Causey, R.: 1977, Unity of Science, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Darwin, C.: 1959, On The Origin of Species. A Facsimile of the First Edition with an Introduction by Ernst Mayr, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1964.
Dawkins, R.: 1976, The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dawkins, R.: 1982, The Extended Phenotype: The Gene as the Unit of Selection, W. H. Freeman, Oxford and San Francisco.
Dobzhansky, T.: 1932, ‘The Baroid Mutation in Drosophila Melanogaster’, Genetics 17, 369–392.
Doolittle, W. F. and Sapienza, C.: 1980, ‘Selfish Genes, The Phenotype Paradigm, and Genome Evolution’, Nature 284, 601–603.
Hamilton, W. D.: 1964, ‘The Genetical Evolution of Social Behavior I and II’, Journal of Theoretical Biology 7, 1–16
Hamilton, W. D.: 1964, ‘The Genetical Evolution of Social Behavior I and II’, Journal of Theoretical Biology 7, 17–52.
Hamilton, W. D.: 1975, ‘Innate Social Aptitudes of Man: An Approach to Evolutionary Genetics’, in R. Fox (ed.), Biosocial Anthropology. Malaby Press, London. Reprinted and abridged in R. Brandon and R. Burian (eds.), Genes, Organisms, Populations: Controversies Over the Units of Selection, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1984, pp. 193–202.
Hellman, G. and Thompson, F.: 1975, ‘Physicalism, Ontology, Determinism, and Reduction’, The Journal of Philosophy 72, 551–564.
Levins, R.: 1974, ‘The Qualitative Analysis of Partially Specified Systems’, Annals of the New York Academy of Science 231, 123–138.
Lewin, R.: 1982, ‘Repeated DNA Still in Search of a Function’, Science 217, 612–623.
Lewontin, R. C.: 1970, ‘The Units of Selection’, Annual Review of Ecology and Systernatics 1, 1–18.
Lewontin, R. C.: 1974, The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change, Columbia University Press, New York.
Lewontin, R. C.: 1977, ‘Fitness, Survival, and Optimality’, in D. J. Horn, R. Mitchell, and G. R. Stairs (eds.), Analysis of Ecological Systems, State University Press, Columbus, OH, pp. 4–21.
Lewontin, R. C.: 1983, Human Diversity, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
Lewontin, R. C. and White, M. J.: 1960, ‘Interaction Between Inversion Polymorphisms of Two Chromosome Pairs in the Grasshopper, Moraba scurra’, Evolution 14, 116–129.
Maynard Smith, J.: 1978, ‘Optimisation Theory in Evolution’, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematic 9, 31–56.
Maynard Smith, J.: 1982, Evolution and the Theory of Games, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Maynard Smith, J.: 1983, ‘Game Theory and the Evolution of Cooperation’, in D. S. Bendali (ed.), Evolution from Molecules to Men, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 445–456.
Maynard Smith, J.: 1984, ‘Game Theory and the Evolution of Behavior’, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7, 95–125.
Mayr, E.: 1963, Animal Species and Evolution, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Mayr, E.: 1975, ‘The Unity of the Genotype’, Biologisches Zentralblatt 94, pp. 377–388; reprinted with a recent preface in R. Brandon and R. Burian (eds.), Genes, Organisms, and Populations, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1984.
Mills, S. and Beatty, J.: 1979, ‘The Propensity Interpretation of Fitness’, Philosophy of Science 46, 263–286.
Nagel, E.: 1961, The Structure of Science, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York.
Orgel, L. and Crick, F.: 1980, ‘Selfish DNA: The Ultimate Parasite’, Nature 284, 604–607.
Richardson, R.: 1982, ‘Grades of Organization and the Units of Selection Controversy’, in P. D. Asquith and T. Nickles (eds.), PSA 1982, vol. 1, Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 324–340.
Richardson, R.: 1984, ‘Biology and Ideology: The Interpenetration of Science and Politics’, Philosophy of Science 50: pp. 000–000.
Richardson, R.: (forthcoming), ‘Models and Scientific Explanation’, in a volume edited by G. Dorn and P. Weingartner.
Rosenberg, A.: 1978, ‘The Supervenience of Biological Concepts’, Philosophy of Science 46, 263–288.
Rosenberg, A.: 1983, ‘Fitness’, The Journal of Philosophy 80, 457–473.
Roughgarden, J.: 1979, Theory of Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology: An Introduction, MacMillan, London & New York.
Schaffner, K.: 1974, ‘Reductionism in Biology: Prospects and Problems’, in R. S. Cohen et al. (eds.), PSA 1974, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1976.
Sober, E.: 1980, ‘Holism, individualism, and the Units of Selection’, in P. D. Asquith and R. N. Giere (eds.), PSA 1980, Philosophy of Science Association, 1981, pp. 93–121.
Sober, E. and Lewontin, R. C.: 1982, ‘Artifact, Cause and Genic Selection’, Philosophy of Science 49, 157–180.
Sturtevant, A. H.: 1925, ‘The Effects of Unequal Crossing Over at the Bar Locus in Drosophila’, Genetics 10, 117–147.
Sturtevant, A. H. and Morgan, T. H.: 1923, ‘Reverse Mutation of the Bar Gene Correlated with Crossing Over’, Science 57, 746–747.
Sturtevant, A. H.: 1965, A History of Genetics, Harper & Row, New York.
Trivers, R.: 1971, ‘The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism’, The Quarterly Review of Biology 46, 35–57.
Williams, G. C.: 1966, Adaptation and Natural Selection, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Wilson, E.: 1975, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Wimsatt, W.: 1980a, ‘Reductionist Research Strategies and Their Biases in the Units of Selection Controversy’, in T. Nickles (ed.), Scientific Discovery vol. 2: Case Studies, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Wimsatt, W.: 1980b, ‘Units of Selection and the Structure of the Multi-level Genome’, in R. Giere and P. D. Aquith (eds.), PSA 1980, Philosophy of Science Association.
Wimsatt, W.: (in progress), ‘VonBaer’s Law of Development, Generative Entrenchment, and Scientific Change’.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1985 D. Reidel Publishing Company
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Richardson, R.C. (1985). Biological Reductionism and Genic Selectionism. In: Fetzer, J.H. (eds) Sociobiology and Epistemology. Synthese Library, vol 180. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5370-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5370-3_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-277-2006-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-5370-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive