A new set of criteria for units of selection

Pierrick Bourrat

doi:10.1007/s13752-022-00416-y

A new set of criteria for units of selection

Pierrick Bourrat^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

36 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article proposes two conditions to assess whether an entity at a level of description is a unit of selection qua interactor. These two conditions make it possible to (1) distinguish biologically relevant entities from arbitrary ones and (2) distinguish units that can potentially enter a selection process from those that have already done so. I show that the classical approaches used in the literature on units and levels of selection do not fare well with respect to either or both of these desiderata.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	263-275
Number of pages	13
Journal	Biological Theory
Volume	17
Issue number	4
Early online date	24 Nov 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-022-00416-y
Publication status	Published - Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2022. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

Additivity
Interaction
Levels of selection
Units of selection
Variance

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10.1007/s13752-022-00416-y

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 883 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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keywords = "Additivity, Interaction, Levels of selection, Units of selection, Variance",

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N2 - This article proposes two conditions to assess whether an entity at a level of description is a unit of selection qua interactor. These two conditions make it possible to (1) distinguish biologically relevant entities from arbitrary ones and (2) distinguish units that can potentially enter a selection process from those that have already done so. I show that the classical approaches used in the literature on units and levels of selection do not fare well with respect to either or both of these desiderata.

AB - This article proposes two conditions to assess whether an entity at a level of description is a unit of selection qua interactor. These two conditions make it possible to (1) distinguish biologically relevant entities from arbitrary ones and (2) distinguish units that can potentially enter a selection process from those that have already done so. I show that the classical approaches used in the literature on units and levels of selection do not fare well with respect to either or both of these desiderata.

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KW - Units of selection

KW - Variance

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ER -

A new set of criteria for units of selection

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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DE210100303: Inheritance and the Emergence of Individuals: From concepts to practice

Cite this

A new set of criteria for units of selection

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

DE210100303: Inheritance and the Emergence of Individuals: From concepts to practice

Cite this