A commentary on “The Formal Darwinism Project”: there is no grandeur in this view of life

Biology and Philosophy 29 (2):259-270 (2014)
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Abstract

The Formal Darwinism Project is an attempt to use mathematical theory to prove the claim that fitness maximization is the outcome of evolution in nature. Grafen’s (2014, p. 12) conclusion from this project is that “….there is a very general expectation of something close to fitness maximisation, which will convert into fitness-maximisation unless there are particular kinds of circumstances—and further, that fitness is the same quantity for all genetic architectures.” Grafen’s claim appears to mean to him that natural populations are expected to contain individuals whose traits are optimal, i.e., any given trait outperforms all reasonable alternatives. I describe why Grafen’s attempt can never provide a meaningful expectation as to the ubiquity of optimal traits in nature. This is so because it is based upon a misconception of the relationship between theory and empirical analysis. Even if one could use theory in the way Grafen proposes, I describe how his theory is causally incomplete. Finally, I describe how Grafen’s conceptual framework is ambiguous. The Formal Darwinism Project has been inspired by “On The Origin of Species” by Darwin. The great lesson of this book was Darwin’s demonstration of the necessary dialog between theory and data, with each influencing and being influenced by the other. Grafen’s Formal Darwinism Project, an attempt to create understanding of nature by removing data from this dialog, reflects a failure to understand Darwin’s great lesson

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Citations of this work

Natural Selection and the Maximization of Fitness.Jonathan Birch - 2015 - Biological Reviews 91 (3):712-727.
The formal darwinism project in outline.Alan Grafen - 2014 - Biology and Philosophy 29 (2):155-174.
The Inclusive Fitness Controversy: Finding a Way Forward.Jonathan Birch - 2017 - Royal Society Open Science 4 (170335):170335.
Inclusive Fitness as a Criterion for Improvement.Jonathan Birch - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 76 (C):101186.

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References found in this work

Adaptationism and Optimality.Steven Hecht Orzack & Elliott Sober (eds.) - 2001 - Cambridge University Press.
The formal darwinism project in outline.Alan Grafen - 2014 - Biology and Philosophy 29 (2):155-174.

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