Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:21:15.874Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Semantic Pitfalls of Biological Adaptation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Michael T. Ghiselin
Michael T. Ghiselin*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

“Adaptation” has several meanings which have often been confused, including relations, processes, states, and intrinsic properties. It is used in comparative and historical contexts. “Adaptation” and “environment” may designate probabilistic concepts. Recognition of these points refutes arguments for the notions that: 1) all organisms are perfectly adapted; 2) organisms cannot be ill-adapted and survive or well-adapted and die; 3) adaptation is necessarily relative to the environment; 4) change in environment is necessary for evolution; 5) preadaptation implies teleology. Such notions are associated with metaphysical ideas, and may affect the thinking of biologists.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , June 1966 , pp. 147 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 by The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1] Bock, Walter J., and von Wahlert, Gerd, “Adaptation and the form-function complex,” Evolution, XIX, 1965.10.1111/j.1558-5646.1965.tb01720.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Darwin, Charles, On the Origin of Species, London: John Murray, 1859.Google Scholar
[3] Ehrlich, Paul R., and Holm, Richard W., “Patterns and populations,” Science, CXXXVII, 1962.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
[4] Fisher, R. A., The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Oxford: Clarendon, 1930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Ghiselin, Michael T., “An application of the theory of definitions to systematic principles,” Systematic Zoology, in press.Google Scholar
[6] Jepsen, Glenn L., Simpson, George Gaylord, and Mayr, Ernst, Genetics, Paleontology and Evolution, Glossary, Princeton: University Press, 1959.Google Scholar
[7] Lehman, Hugh, “Functional explanation in biology,” Philosophy of Science, XXXII, 1965.10.1086/288022CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] Mainx, Felix, “Foundations of biology,” International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Vol. I, No. IX, ed. Otto Neurath, Chicago; University Press.Google Scholar
[9] Mayr, Ernst, Animal Species and Evolution, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[10] Medawar, P. B., “Problems of adaptation,” New Biology, XI, 1951.Google Scholar
[11] Pittendrigh, Colin S., “Adaptation, natural selection, and behavior,” Behavior and Evolution, Ch. XVIII, eds. Anne Roe and George Gaylord Simpson, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
[12] Simpson, George Gaylord, This View of Life, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964.Google Scholar