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Utility vs Beauty: Darwin, Wallace and the Subsequent History of the Debate on Sexual Selection

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Book cover Current Perspectives on Sexual Selection

Part of the book series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences ((HPTL,volume 9))

Abstract

We examine the origins of the disagreement of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin regarding the significance and mechanism of sexual selection and relate this to differences in their views of human evolution, and of cognitive ability and esthetic sensibilities of various human and nonhuman populations. We trace subsequent versions of these differing views into the twentieth century, and the controversy between R.A. Fisher’s Darwinian “runaway” model of sexual selection by female choice (the “sexy son” model), and Wallacean models of sexual selection based on signs of greater fitness of males (the “healthy gene” hypothesis). Models derived from the latter, the “honest signal” and “handicap” models, are discussed, and we note that these different models, based on utility or beauty, are not necessarily mutually inconsistent.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Lyon, France

    Thierry Hoquet

  2. Haskins Laboratories, Pace University, 10038, New York, NY, USA

    Michael Levandowsky

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  1. Thierry Hoquet
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  2. Michael Levandowsky
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Correspondence to Thierry Hoquet .

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  1. Faculty of Philosophy, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Lyon, France

    Thierry Hoquet

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Hoquet, T., Levandowsky, M. (2015). Utility vs Beauty: Darwin, Wallace and the Subsequent History of the Debate on Sexual Selection. In: Hoquet, T. (eds) Current Perspectives on Sexual Selection. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9585-2_2

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