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The Dimensions of Selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Peter Godfrey-Smith  and
Richard Lewontin
Peter Godfrey-Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Stanford University
Richard Lewontin*
Affiliation:
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
*
‡Send reprint requests to Peter Godfrey-Smith, Department of Philosophy, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305–2155, USA.
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Abstract

Proponents of genic selectionism have claimed that evolutionary processes normally viewed as selection on individuals can be “represented” as selection on alleles. This paper discusses the relationship between mathematical questions about the formal requirements upon state spaces necessary for the representation of different types of evolutionary processes and causal questions about the units of selection in such processes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , September 1993 , pp. 373 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1993

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Footnotes

†

We would like to thank Marcus Feldman, Deborah Gordon, Philip Kitcher, Elisabeth Lloyd, Elliott Sober, Ken Waters and two anonymous referees for comments on earlier drafts. Thanks to Devin Muldoon for the graphics, and special thanks from PGS to Sarah Otto for numerous corrections and suggestions.

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