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Chance Variation: Darwin on Orchids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

John Beatty
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Abstract

How, according to Darwin, does chance variation affect evolutionary outcomes? In his 1866 book, On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, Darwin developed an argument that played an important role in his overall case for evolution by natural selection, as articulated in later editions of the Origin. This argument also figured significantly in Darwin's reflections on the theological dimensions of evolution by natural selection.

Type
Case Studies on Chance in Evolution
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 73 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. Edited by Miriam Solomon , December 2006 , pp. 629 - 641
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

Thanks very much to Robert Richardson and Robert Skipper for organizing and contributing to this session. Thanks also to Michael Dietrich, James Lennox, Roberta Millstein, and the HPS-STS Collective at UBC for their thoughtful feedback. I was pleased to present a version of this paper in honor of Jim Lennox's long and productive directorship of the Center for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

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