Introduction

Let us consider adaptive explanations from evolutionary theory. Take the timber wolf, one of Darwin's examples. Descended from more generalized and slower carnivores, the wolf evolved specialized traits for hunting swift prey like deer and elk. For any explanation by natural selection, we need to specify not only the traits, but the hereditary basis, connection to fitness and the environmental pressures, as sketched below for the wolf case.

We start with variation in the crucial traits of swiftness, slimness and strength, Darwin writes, and because there was a reproductive advantage associated with these traits, we have the wolf 's specialized adaptations for swiftness that contribute to their reproductive success (or fitness) today. What happens in the population as a whole is that the mean speed of the wolves, which is highly variable in the ancestral population, increases over evolutionary time, as the trait is selected generation after generation, until there is a peak in the population distribution of speed, at a high speed.

The Obvious Account

When thinking about female orgasm, at first it seems perfectly obvious that the trait is an evolutionary adaptation: women who have orgasms will want to have more intercourse, and more intercourse leads to more babies.