Samir Okasha
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199267972
- eISBN:
- 9780191708275
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267972.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Does natural selection act primarily on individual organisms, on groups, on genes, or on whole species? This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the long-standing controversy in evolutionary ...
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Does natural selection act primarily on individual organisms, on groups, on genes, or on whole species? This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the long-standing controversy in evolutionary biology over the levels of selection, focusing on conceptual, philosophical, and foundational questions. In the first half of the book, a systematic framework is developed for thinking about natural selection acting at multiple levels of the biological hierarchy; the framework is then used to help resolve outstanding issues. Considerable attention is paid to the concept of causality as it relates to the levels of selection, particularly the idea that natural selection at one hierarchical level can have effects that ‘filter’ up or down to other levels. Full account is taken of the recent biological literature on ‘major evolutionary transitions’ and the recent resurgence of interest in multi-level selection theory among biologists. Other biological topics discussed include Price's equation, kin and group selection, the gene's eye view, evolutionary game theory, selfish genetic elements, species and clade selection, and the evolution of individuality. Philosophical topics discussed include reductionism and holism, causation and correlation, the nature of hierarchical organization, and realism and pluralism about the levels of selection.Less
Does natural selection act primarily on individual organisms, on groups, on genes, or on whole species? This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the long-standing controversy in evolutionary biology over the levels of selection, focusing on conceptual, philosophical, and foundational questions. In the first half of the book, a systematic framework is developed for thinking about natural selection acting at multiple levels of the biological hierarchy; the framework is then used to help resolve outstanding issues. Considerable attention is paid to the concept of causality as it relates to the levels of selection, particularly the idea that natural selection at one hierarchical level can have effects that ‘filter’ up or down to other levels. Full account is taken of the recent biological literature on ‘major evolutionary transitions’ and the recent resurgence of interest in multi-level selection theory among biologists. Other biological topics discussed include Price's equation, kin and group selection, the gene's eye view, evolutionary game theory, selfish genetic elements, species and clade selection, and the evolution of individuality. Philosophical topics discussed include reductionism and holism, causation and correlation, the nature of hierarchical organization, and realism and pluralism about the levels of selection.
Samir Okasha
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199267972
- eISBN:
- 9780191708275
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267972.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter develops an abstract framework for thinking about selection acting at multiple hierarchical levels. The nature of hierarchical organization is analyzed, in particular the idea that ...
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This chapter develops an abstract framework for thinking about selection acting at multiple hierarchical levels. The nature of hierarchical organization is analyzed, in particular the idea that interaction among lower-level entities is what gives rise to a higher-level entity. The relation between characters, fitnesses, and heritabilities at two hierarchical levels is discussed as a precursor to understanding multi-level selection. An important ambiguity in the notion of multi-level selection, due to J. Damuth and I. L. Heisler, is then examined. Both types of multi-level selection (MLS1 and MLS2) are analyzed using Price's equation and contrasted with each other.Less
This chapter develops an abstract framework for thinking about selection acting at multiple hierarchical levels. The nature of hierarchical organization is analyzed, in particular the idea that interaction among lower-level entities is what gives rise to a higher-level entity. The relation between characters, fitnesses, and heritabilities at two hierarchical levels is discussed as a precursor to understanding multi-level selection. An important ambiguity in the notion of multi-level selection, due to J. Damuth and I. L. Heisler, is then examined. Both types of multi-level selection (MLS1 and MLS2) are analyzed using Price's equation and contrasted with each other.
Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151250
- eISBN:
- 9781400838837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151250.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
This chapter examines the sociobiology of human cooperation. Given the tendency of people to copy the successful and the fact that natural selection favors the more fit, the chapter asks how our ...
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This chapter examines the sociobiology of human cooperation. Given the tendency of people to copy the successful and the fact that natural selection favors the more fit, the chapter asks how our altruistic preferences overcame the cultural and biological evolutionary handicaps entailed by the reduced payoffs that they elicited. To answer this question, two major biological explanations of cooperation are discussed: inclusive fitness in either a kin-based or a multi-level selection model, and reciprocal altruism and its indirect reciprocity and costly signaling variants. The chapter explores a model of inclusive fitness based on group differentiation and competition, clarifying what is meant by multi-level selection and how it works. It also discusses models that address equilibrium selection, the link between standing strategy and indirect reciprocity, and positive assortment. Finally, it assesses the mechanisms and motives underlying helping behavior.Less
This chapter examines the sociobiology of human cooperation. Given the tendency of people to copy the successful and the fact that natural selection favors the more fit, the chapter asks how our altruistic preferences overcame the cultural and biological evolutionary handicaps entailed by the reduced payoffs that they elicited. To answer this question, two major biological explanations of cooperation are discussed: inclusive fitness in either a kin-based or a multi-level selection model, and reciprocal altruism and its indirect reciprocity and costly signaling variants. The chapter explores a model of inclusive fitness based on group differentiation and competition, clarifying what is meant by multi-level selection and how it works. It also discusses models that address equilibrium selection, the link between standing strategy and indirect reciprocity, and positive assortment. Finally, it assesses the mechanisms and motives underlying helping behavior.
Andrew Wedel
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199547548
- eISBN:
- 9780191720628
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547548.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
In a feedback-driven model of language change, conflict between patterns at distinct levels of linguistic organization can be understood as a form of multi-level selection. Simulations of conflicts ...
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In a feedback-driven model of language change, conflict between patterns at distinct levels of linguistic organization can be understood as a form of multi-level selection. Simulations of conflicts between phonological and morphological patterns show that positive feedback can promote pattern consolidation at one level at the expense of the other. In this way, analogical generalizations over subparts of the lexicon can be shown to be emergent properties of complex linguistic systems.Less
In a feedback-driven model of language change, conflict between patterns at distinct levels of linguistic organization can be understood as a form of multi-level selection. Simulations of conflicts between phonological and morphological patterns show that positive feedback can promote pattern consolidation at one level at the expense of the other. In this way, analogical generalizations over subparts of the lexicon can be shown to be emergent properties of complex linguistic systems.
Roderick E. White and Barbara Decker Pierce
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226127156
- eISBN:
- 9780226127293
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226127293.003.0011
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Biological organisms and human organizations are both multi-level cooperative systems subject to the process of natural selection. We explain how Darwin's profound insight – descent with modification ...
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Biological organisms and human organizations are both multi-level cooperative systems subject to the process of natural selection. We explain how Darwin's profound insight – descent with modification – can be and is being extended beyond the purely biological through contemporary theoretical advances in the areas of social cognition and learning to explain behavior in groups, organizations and societies. We argue that genes and culture have interacted over the millennia of human history to forge within our species a cooperative instinct along with the mechanisms needed to sustain cooperation in large social groups such as organizations. The implications of this argument are developed and discussed as they relate to three organizational phenomena; decision making, management control, and leadership. In conclusion we encourage management scholars to further explore how this perspective can be used to develop new insights and understanding to advance the field of organizational behavior and management theory.Less
Biological organisms and human organizations are both multi-level cooperative systems subject to the process of natural selection. We explain how Darwin's profound insight – descent with modification – can be and is being extended beyond the purely biological through contemporary theoretical advances in the areas of social cognition and learning to explain behavior in groups, organizations and societies. We argue that genes and culture have interacted over the millennia of human history to forge within our species a cooperative instinct along with the mechanisms needed to sustain cooperation in large social groups such as organizations. The implications of this argument are developed and discussed as they relate to three organizational phenomena; decision making, management control, and leadership. In conclusion we encourage management scholars to further explore how this perspective can be used to develop new insights and understanding to advance the field of organizational behavior and management theory.
Jordan Zlatev
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199665327
- eISBN:
- 9780191779725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665327.003.0018
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
This chapter argues that language, which rests on the sharing of linguistic norms, honest information, and moral norms, evolved through a co-evolutionary process with a pivotal role for ...
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This chapter argues that language, which rests on the sharing of linguistic norms, honest information, and moral norms, evolved through a co-evolutionary process with a pivotal role for intersubjectivity. Mainstream evolutionary models, based only on individual-level and gene-level selection, are suggested to be incapable to account for such sharing of care, values and information, thus implying the need to evoke multi-level selection, including (cultural) group selection. Four of the most influential current theories of the evolution of human-scale sociality, those of Dunbar, Deacon, Tomasello, and Hrdy, are compared and evaluated on the basis of their answers to five questions: (1) Why we and not others? (2) How: by what mechanisms? (3) When? (4) In what kind of social settings? (5) What are the implications for ontogeny? The conclusions are that the theories are to a large degree complementary, and that they all assume, explicitly or not, a role for group selection.Less
This chapter argues that language, which rests on the sharing of linguistic norms, honest information, and moral norms, evolved through a co-evolutionary process with a pivotal role for intersubjectivity. Mainstream evolutionary models, based only on individual-level and gene-level selection, are suggested to be incapable to account for such sharing of care, values and information, thus implying the need to evoke multi-level selection, including (cultural) group selection. Four of the most influential current theories of the evolution of human-scale sociality, those of Dunbar, Deacon, Tomasello, and Hrdy, are compared and evaluated on the basis of their answers to five questions: (1) Why we and not others? (2) How: by what mechanisms? (3) When? (4) In what kind of social settings? (5) What are the implications for ontogeny? The conclusions are that the theories are to a large degree complementary, and that they all assume, explicitly or not, a role for group selection.
Jonathan Birch
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198733058
- eISBN:
- 9780191797491
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198733058.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
In group-structured populations in which some other assumptions are satisfied, kin and group selectionist methods provide formally equivalent conditions for change. However, this only shows an ...
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In group-structured populations in which some other assumptions are satisfied, kin and group selectionist methods provide formally equivalent conditions for change. However, this only shows an equivalence between two statistical methodologies, and this is compatible with there being a real, causal distinction between kin and group selection processes. This chapter pursues a Hamilton-inspired, population-centred approach to drawing that distinction, on which the differences between kin and group selection are differences of degree in the structural properties of populations. The relevant properties are K, the overall degree to which genealogical kin interact differentially, and G, the overall degree to which the population contains stable, internally integrated, and externally isolated social groups. A spatial metaphor (‘K-G space’) provides a useful framework for thinking about these differences.Less
In group-structured populations in which some other assumptions are satisfied, kin and group selectionist methods provide formally equivalent conditions for change. However, this only shows an equivalence between two statistical methodologies, and this is compatible with there being a real, causal distinction between kin and group selection processes. This chapter pursues a Hamilton-inspired, population-centred approach to drawing that distinction, on which the differences between kin and group selection are differences of degree in the structural properties of populations. The relevant properties are K, the overall degree to which genealogical kin interact differentially, and G, the overall degree to which the population contains stable, internally integrated, and externally isolated social groups. A spatial metaphor (‘K-G space’) provides a useful framework for thinking about these differences.