Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-01T12:35:39.849Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Units of Selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2023

Javier Suárez
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow and Universidad de Oviedo, Spain
Elisabeth A. Lloyd
Affiliation:
Indiana University

Summary

This Element introduces the Disambiguating Project (DP) about the units of selection. By DP, the authors mean the thesis that the expression 'units of selection' refers to at least three non-co-extensional functional concepts: interactor, replicator/reproducer/reconstitutor, and manifestor of adaptation/type-1 agent. They present each concept and demonstrate the necessity of their isolation, because each of them responds to a distinct question about the units of selection, and these distinct questions are not always posed in combination in today's biological research. They further apply the framework to the analysis of the debates concerning the Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality (ETI) and argue that the DP interprets the ETI better than any project rejecting the three meanings of 'units of selection.' Thus, they claim that the differentiation between at least these three functional concepts is fundamental to clarify some conceptual confusions in biology, which rest on the conflation of these distinct meanings.
Get access
Type
Element
Information
Online ISBN: 9781009276429
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 21 September 2023

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

Amundson, Ron. 2001. ‘Adaptation, Development, and the Quest for Common Ground’. In: Orzack, SH and Sober, E (eds.) Adaptationism and Optimality. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 303–34.Google Scholar
Arnold, Stevan J and Wade, Michael J. 1984a. ‘On the Measurement of Natural and Sexual Selection: Applications’. Evolution 38 (4): 720–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arnold, Stevan J and Wade, Michael J 1984b. ‘On the Measurement of Natural and Sexual Selection: Theory’. Evolution 38 (4): 709–19.Google Scholar
Biernaskie, Jay M and Foster, Kevin R. 2016. ‘Ecology and Multilevel Selection Explain Aggression in Spider Colonies’. Ecology Letters 19 (8): 873–9.Google Scholar
Bijma, Piter. 2014. ‘The Quantitative Genetics of Indirect Genetic Effects: A Selective Review of Modelling Issues’. Heredity 112 (1): 6169.Google Scholar
Bijma, Piter and Wade, Michael J. 2008. ‘The Joint Effects of Kin, Multilevel Selection and Indirect Genetic Effects on Response to Genetic Selection’. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 21: 1175–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piter, Bijma, Muir, William M, Ellen, Esther D, Wolf, Jason B, and Van Arendonk, Johan AM. 2007a. ‘Multilevel Selection 2: Estimating the Genetic Parameters Determining Inheritance and Response to Selection’. Genetics 175 (1): 289–99.Google Scholar
Piter, Bijma, Muir, William M, and Van Arendonk, Johan AM. 2007b. ‘Multilevel Selection 1: Quantitative Genetics of Inheritance and Response to Selection’. Genetics 175 (1): 277–88.Google Scholar
Bock, Walter. 1980. ‘The Definition and Recognition of Biological Adaptation’. Integrative and Comparative Biology 20(1): 217–27.Google Scholar
Booth, Austin. 2014. ‘Symbiosis, Selection, and Individuality’. Biology & Philosophy 29 (5): 657–73.Google Scholar
Borrello, Mark E. 2010. Evolutionary Restraints: The Contentious History of Group Selection. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourrat, Pierrick. 2002. ‘A New Set of Criteria for Units of Selection’. Biol Theory 17: 263–75.Google Scholar
Bourrat, Pierrick. 2019. ‘Evolutionary Transitions in Heritability and Individuality’. Theory in Biosciences 138 (2): 305–23.Google Scholar
Bourrat, Pierrick 2021. Facts, Conventions, and the Levels of Selection. Elements in the Philosophy of Biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bourrat, Pierrick and Griffiths, Paul E. 2018. ‘Multispecies Individuals’. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 40 (2): 123.Google Scholar
Brandon, Robert. 1981. ‘Biological Teleology: Questions and Explanations’. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 12 (2): 91105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandon, Robert 1982. ‘The Levels of Selection’. Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982: 315–23.Google Scholar
Brandon, Robert 1985. ‘Adaptation Explanations: Are Adaptations for the Good of Replicators or Interactors?’ In: Depew, David J., Weber, Bruce H. (eds.) Evolution at a Crossroads: The New Biology and the New Philosophy of Science. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 8196.Google Scholar
Brandon, Robert 1988. ‘The Levels of Selection: A Hierarchy of Interactors’. In: Plotkin, H.C. (ed.) The Role of Behavior in Evolution. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 5171.Google Scholar
Brandon, Robert 1990. Adaptation and Environment. Vol. 1040. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ .Google Scholar
Burian, Richard D. 1992. ‘Adaptation: Historical Perspectives’. In: Keller, EF and Lloyd, EA (eds.) Keywords in Evolutionary Biology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Buss, Leo W. 1987. The Evolution of Individuality. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Carroll, Sean B. 2005. Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom. Norton, New York.Google Scholar
Charnov, Eric. 1982. The Theory of Sex Allocation. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Chiu, Lynn, Gilbert, Scott F. 2015. ‘The Birth of the Holobiont: Multi-species Birthing through Mutual Scaffolding and Niche Construction’. Biosemiotics 8: 191210.Google Scholar
Clarke, Ellen. 2013. ‘The Multiple Realizability of Biological Individuals’. The Journal of Philosophy 110 (8): 413–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, Ellen 2014. ‘Origins of Evolutionary Transitions’. Journal of Biosciences 39 (2): 303–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Damuth, John and Heisler, Lorraine. 1988. ‘Alternative Formulations of Multilevel Selection’. Biology and Philosophy 3 (4): 407–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, Richard. 1982a. ‘Replicators and Vehicles’. Current Problems in Sociobiology 45 (64): 4564.Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard 1982b. The Extended Phenotype. Vol. 8. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard 1976/2016. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
Díaz, Javier Suárez. 2017. ‘El Mecanismo Evolutivo de Margulis y Los Niveles de Selección’. Contrastes: Revista Internacional de Filosofia 20 (1): 724.Google Scholar
Doolittle, W Ford, and Bapteste, Eric. 2007. ‘Pattern Pluralism and the Tree of Life Hypothesis’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (7): 2043–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doolittle, Ford and Booth, Austin. 2017. ‘It’s the Song, Not the Singer: An Exploration of Holobiosis and Evolutionary Theory’. Biology & Philosophy 32(1): 524.Google Scholar
Dugatkin, Lee A and Reeve, Hudson K. 1994. ‘Behavioral Ecology and Levels of Selection: Dissolving the Group Selection Controversy’. Advances in the Study of Behavior 23: 101–33.Google Scholar
Dupré, John and O’Malley, Maureen A. 2009. ‘Varieties of Living Things: Life at the Intersection of Lineage and Metabolism’. Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 1 (20130604): 125.Google Scholar
Fontana, Walter and Buss, Leo W. 1994. ‘“The Arrival of the Fittest”: Toward a Theory of Biological Organization’. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 56 (1): 164.Google Scholar
Forsdyke, Donald R. 2010. ‘George Romanes, William Bateson, and Darwin’s “Weak Point”’. Notes and Records of the Royal Society 64 (2): 139–54.Google Scholar
Gardner, Andy. 2009. ‘Adaptation as Organism Design’. Biol. Lett. 5: 861–4.Google Scholar
Gardner, Andy. 2015. ‘Group Selection versus Group Adaptation’. Nature 524 (7566): E34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gardner, Andy and Grafen, Alan. 2009. ‘Capturing the Superorganism: A Formal Theory of Group Adaptation’. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22 (4): 659–71.Google Scholar
Gardner, Andy and Welch, John. 2011. ‘A Formal Theory of the Selfish Gene’. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24(8): 1801–13.Google Scholar
Gardner, Andy, West, Stuart A., and Wild, Geoff. 2011. ‘The Genetical Theory of Kin Selection’. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24: 1020–43.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. 2001. ‘Three Kinds of Adaptationism’. In: Orzack, SH, and Sober, E (eds.) Adaptationism and Optimality. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 344–62.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, Peter 2007. ‘Conditions for Evolution by Natural Selection’. The Journal of Philosophy 104 (10): 489516.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, Peter 2009. Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, Peter 2011. ‘Agents and Acacias: Replies to Dennett, Sterelny, and Queller’. Biology & Philosophy 26(4): 501–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, Peter 2013. ‘Darwinian Individuals’. From Groups to Individuals: Evolution and Emerging Individuality 16: 1736.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, Peter 2015. ‘Reproduction, Symbiosis, and the Eukaryotic Cell’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (33): 10120–5.Google Scholar
Goodnight, Charles J. 2015. ‘Multilevel Selection Theory and Evidence: A Critique of Gardner, 2015’. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 28 (9): 1734–46.Google Scholar
Goodnight, Charles J and Stevens, Lori. 1997. ‘Experimental Studies of Group Selection: What Do They Tell Us about Group Selection in Nature?The American Naturalist 150 (S1): s5979.Google Scholar
Goodnight, Charles J, Schwartz, James M, Lori, Stevens. (1992). ‘Contextual Analysis of Models of Group Selection, Soft Selection, Hard Selection and the Evolution of Altruism’. Am. Nat. 140 (5): 743–61.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen Jay. 1977. ‘Caring Groups and Selfish Genes’. Natural History 86 (10): 2024.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen Jay 2002. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen Jay and Lloyd, Elisabeth. 1999. ‘Individuality and Adaptation across Levels of Selection: How Shall We Name and Generalize the Unit of Darwinism?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96 (21): 11904–9.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen Jay and Lewontin, Richard C. 1979. ‘The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm’. Proceedings of the Royal Society 205: 581–98.Google Scholar
Grant, B Rosemary and Grant, Peter R. 1989. Evolutionary Dynamics of a Natural Population: The Large Cactus Finch of the Galápagos. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Grant, Peter R and Rosemary Grant, Bara. 2020. How and Why Species Multiply. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grantham, Todd A. 1994. ‘Putting the Cart Back behind the Horse: Group Selection Does Not Require That Groups Be “Organisms”’. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17 (4): 622–3.Google Scholar
Green, Sara. 2014. ‘A Philosophical Evaluation of Adaptationism as a Heuristic Strategy’. Acta Biotheor 62(4): 479–98.Google Scholar
Griesemer, James R. 2000a. ‘Development, Culture, and the Units of Inheritance’. Philosophy of Science 67: S348–68.Google Scholar
Griesemer, James R. 2000b. ‘Reproduction and the Reduction of Genetics’. In: Beurton, Peter J., Falk, Raphael, Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg (eds.) The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution: Historical and Epistemological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 240–85.Google Scholar
Griesemer, James R. 2000c. ‘The Units of Evolutionary Transition’. Selection 1 (1–3): 6780.Google Scholar
Griesemer, James R. 2003. ‘The Philosophical Significance of Gánti’s Work’. In: Gánti, T (ed.) The Principles of Life. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 169–85.Google Scholar
Griesemer, James R. 2005. ‘The Informational Gene and the Substantial Body: On the Generalization of Evolutionary Theory by Abstraction’. Idealization XII: Correcting the Model. Idealization and Abstraction in the Sciences 86: 59115.Google Scholar
Griesemer, James R and Wade, Michael J. 2000. ‘Populational Heritability: Extending Punnett Square Concepts to Evolution at the Metapopulation Level’. Biology and Philosophy 15 (1): 117.Google Scholar
Haldane, John Burdon. 1932/1990. The Causes of Evolution. Vol. 5. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Hamilton, William D. 1975. Innate Social Aptitudes in Man: An Approach from Evolutionary Genetics. In: Fox, Robin (ed.) Biosocial Anthropology. New York, Wiley, pp. 133–55.Google Scholar
Heisler, I Lorraine and Damuth, John. 1987. ‘A Method for Analyzing Selection in Hierarchically Structured Populations’. The American Naturalist 130 (4): 582602.Google Scholar
Holsinger, Kent E. 1994. ‘Groups as Vehicles and Replicators: The Problem of Group-Level Adaptation’. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17 (4): 626–7.Google Scholar
Hull, David L. 1980. ‘Individuality and Selection’. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 311–32.Google Scholar
Hull, David L. 1988a. Science as a Process. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Hull, David L. 1988b. ‘Interactors versus Vehicles’. In: Plotkin, Henry C. (ed.) The Role of Behavior in Evolution. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 1950.Google Scholar
Hull, David L. 2001. Science and Selection: Essays on Biological Evolution and the Philosophy of Science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Jablonski, David. 2008. ‘Species Selection: Theory and Data’. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 39: 501–24.Google Scholar
Jablonski, David and Hunt, Gene. 2006. ‘Larval Ecology, Geographic Range, and Species Survivorship in Cretaceous Mollusks: Organismic Versus Species-Level Explanations’. American Naturalist 168 (4): 556–64.Google Scholar
Jeler, Ciprian. 2020. ‘Explanatory Goals and Explanatory Means in Multilevel Selection Theory’. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 42 (3): 124.Google Scholar
Keller, Evelyn F and Lloyd, Elisabeth A.. 1992. Keywords in Evolutionary Biology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Lande, Russell and Arnold, Stevan J. 1983. ‘The Measurement of Selection on Correlated Characters’. Evolution 37: 1210–26.Google Scholar
Lean, Christopher H, Doolittle, Ford W and Bielawski, Joseph P. 2022. ‘Community-level Evolutionary Processes: Linking Community Genetics with Replicator-Interactor Theory’. PNAS 119 (46): e2202538119.Google Scholar
Levins, Richard and Lewontin, Richard. 1985. The Dialectical Biologist. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Lewens, Tim. 2009. ‘Seven Types of Adaptationism’. Biol Philos 24(2): 161–82.Google Scholar
Lewontin, Richard C. 1962. ‘Interdeme Selection Controlling a Polymorphism in the House Mouse’. The American Naturalist 96 (887): 6578.Google Scholar
Lewontin, Richard C. 1970. ‘The Units of Selection’. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 1: 118.Google Scholar
Lewontin, Richard C. 1978. ‘Adaptation’. Scientific American 239 (3): 212–30.Google Scholar
Lewontin, Richard C and Clarence Dunn, Leslie. 1960. ‘The Evolutionary Dynamics of a Polymorphism in the House Mouse’. Genetics 45 (6): 705–22.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 1986. ‘Evaluation of Evidence in Group Selection Debates’. Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986: 483–93.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 1992. ‘Unit of Selection’. In: Fox Keller, E and Lloyd, EA (eds.) Keywords in Evolutionary Biology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 334–40.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 1988/1994. The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ .Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 1994. ‘Rx: Distinguish Group Selection from Group Adaptation’. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17 (4): 628–9.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 1999. ‘Altruism Revisited. Review of Unto Others by Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson’. Quarterly Review of Biology 74: 447–9.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 2001. ‘An Anatomy of the Units of Selection Debates’. In: Singh, Rama S., Krimbas, Costas B., Paul, Diane B., and Beatty, John (eds.) Thinking about Evolution: Historical, Philosophical, and Political Perspectives Vol 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 267–90.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 2015. ‘Adaptationism and the Logic of Research Questions: How to Think Clearly about Evolutionary Causes’. Biological Theory 10(4): 343–62.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 2018. ‘Holobionts as Units of Selection: Holobionts as Interactors, Reproducers, and Manifestors of Adaptation’. In: Gissis, SB, Lamm, E, Shavit, A (eds.) Landscapes of Collectivity in the Life Sciences. MIT Press, London, pp 305–24.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 2021. Adaptation. Elements in the Philosophy of Biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 2023. ‘Units and Levels of Selection’. In: Zalta, Edward N (ed.) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A and Feldman, Marcus W. 2002. ‘Commentary: Evolutionary Psychology: A View from Evolutionary Biology’. Psychological Inquiry 13 (2): 150–6.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A and Gould, Stephen J. 1993. ‘Species Selection on Variability’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 90 (2): 595–9.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A and Gould, Stephen J 2017. ‘Exaptation Revisited: Changes Imposed by Evolutionary Psychologists and Behavioral Biologists’. Biological Theory 12: 5065.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 2005. ‘Why the Gene Will Not Return’. Philosophy of Science 72 (2): 287310.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A, Lewontin, Richard C, and Feldman, Marcus W. 2008. ‘The Generational Cycle of State Spaces and Adequate Genetical Representation’. Philosophy of Science 75 (2): 140–56.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Elisabeth A, and Wade, Michael J. 2019. ‘Criteria for Holobionts from Community Genetics’. Biological Theory 14 (3): 151–70.Google Scholar
Maynard Smith, John. 1964. ‘Group Selection and Kin Selection’. Nature 201 (4924): 1145–7.Google Scholar
Maynard Smith, John. 1978. ‘Optimization Theory in Evolution’. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 9: 3156.Google Scholar
Maynard Smith, John. 2001. ‘Reconciling Marxism and Darwin’. Evolution 55 (7): 1496–8.Google Scholar
Maynard Smith, John and Szathmáry, Eors. 1995. The Major Transitions in Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford UK.Google Scholar
Mayr, Ernst. 1983. ‘How to Carry Out the Adaptationist Program?The American Naturalist 121: 324–34.Google Scholar
Mendoza, M. Zepeda, Lisandra, Xiong, Zijun, Escalera-Zamudio, Marina, et al. 2018. ‘Hologenomic Adaptations Underlying the Evolution of Sanguivory in the Common Vampire Bat’. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2: 659–68.Google Scholar
Merlin, Francesca. 2017. ‘Limited Extended Inheritance’. In: Huneman, Philippe, Walsh, Denis (eds.) Challenges to Evolutionary Theory: Development, Inheritance, Adaptation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 263–79.Google Scholar
Merlin, Francesca and Riboli-Sasco, Livio. 2017. ‘Mapping Biological Transmission: An Empirical, Dynamical, and Evolutionary Approach’. Acta Biotheoretica 65 (2): 97115.Google Scholar
Millstein, Roberta L. 2002. ‘Are Random Drift and Natural Selection Conceptually Distinct?Biology and Philosophy 17 (1): 3353.Google Scholar
Okasha, Samir. 2003. ‘Biological Altruism’. In: Zalta, Edward N (ed.) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/altruism-biological/.Google Scholar
Okasha, Samir 2006. Evolution and the Levels of Selection. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Okasha, Samir 2010. ‘Altruism Researchers Must Cooperate’. Nature 467: 653–5.Google Scholar
Okasha, Samir 2016. ‘The Relation between Kin and Multilevel Selection: An Approach Using Causal Graphs’. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 67 (2): 435–70.Google Scholar
Okasha, Samir 2018. Agents and Goals in Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
O’Malley, Maureen A and Powell, Russell. 2016. ‘Major Problems in Evolutionary Transitions: How a Metabolic Perspective Can Enrich Our Understanding of Macroevolution’. Biol Philos 31: 159–89.Google Scholar
Orzack, Steven H and Sober, Elliot. 1994. ‘Optimality Models and the Test of Adaptationism’. The American Naturalist 143: 361–80.Google Scholar
Orzack, Steven Hecht and Forber, Patrick. 2017. Adaptationism. In: Zalta, Edward N (ed.) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/adaptationism/.Google Scholar
Papale, François. 2020. ‘Evolution by Means of Natural Selection without Reproduction: Revamping Lewontin’s Account’. Synthese 198: 1042910455.Google Scholar
Pigliucci, Massimo and Kaplan, Jonathan. 2000. ‘The Rise and Fall of Dr. Pangloss: Adaptationism and the Spandrels Paper 20 Years Later’. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 15(2): 6670.Google Scholar
Queller, David C and Strassmann, Joan E. 2009. ‘Beyond Society: The Evolution of Organismality’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364 (1533): 3143–55.Google Scholar
Queller, David C and Strassmann, Joan E 2016. ‘Problems of Multi-Species Organisms: Endosymbionts to Holobionts’. Biology & Philosophy 31 (6): 855–73.Google Scholar
Rechavi, Oded, Houri-Ze’evi, Leah, Anava, Sarit, et al. 2014. ‘Starvation-induced Transgenerational Inheritance of Small RNAs in C. elegans’. Cell 158(2): 277–87.Google Scholar
Reeve, Hudson Kern and Keller, Laurent. 1999. ‘Levels of Selection: Burying the Units of Selection Debate and Unearthing the Crucial New Issues’. In Keller, L (ed.) Levels of selection in evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp. 314.Google Scholar
Reeve, Hudson Kern and Sherman, Paul W. 1993. ‘Adaptation and the Goals of Evolutionary Research’. The Quarterly Review of Biology 68(1): 1–32.Google Scholar
Salmon, Wesley C. 1971. Statistical Explanation and Statistical Relevance. Vol. 69. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sansom, Roger. 2003. ‘Constraining the Adaptationism Debate’. Biology and Philosophy 18: 493512.Google Scholar
Skillings, Derek. 2016. ‘Holobionts and the Ecology of Organisms: Multi-Species Communities or Integrated Individuals?Biology & Philosophy 31 (6): 875–92.Google Scholar
Smith, Eric Alden. 1994. ‘Semantics, Theory, and Methodological Individualism in the Group-Selection Controversy’. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17 (4): 636–7.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliott. 1984. The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus. Vol. 95. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliott and Wilson, David Sloan. 1993. Philosophy of Biology. Vol. 45. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, CO.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliott and Wilson, David Sloan 1998. Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Stencel, Adrian. 2016. ‘The Relativity of Darwinian Populations and the Ecology of Endosymbiosis’. Biology & Philosophy 31 (5): 619–37.Google Scholar
Adrian, Stencel and Proszewska, Agnieszka M. 2018. ‘How Research on Microbiomes Is Changing Biology: A Discussion on the Concept of the Organism’. Foundations of Science 23 (4): 603–20.Google Scholar
Stencel, Adrian and Wloch-Salamon, Dominika M.. 2018. ‘Some Theoretical Insights into the Hologenome Theory of Evolution and the Role of Microbes in Speciation’. Theory in Biosciences 137(2): 197206.Google Scholar
Sterelny, Kim. 2011. ‘Darwinian Spaces: Peter Godfrey-Smith on Selection and Evolution’. Biology & Philosophy 26 (4): 489500.Google Scholar
Suárez, Javier. 2018. ‘“The Importance of Symbiosis in Philosophy of Biology: An Analysis of the Current Debate on Biological Individuality and Its Historical Roots”’. Symbiosis 76 (2): 7796.Google Scholar
Suárez, Javier 2019. ‘The Hologenome Concept of Evolution: A Philosophical and Biological Study’. PhD Dissertation. University of Exeter, Exeter.Google Scholar
Suárez, Javier 2020. The Stability of Traits Conception of the Hologenome: An Evolutionary Account of Holobiont Individuality. HPLS 42 (11) (2020).Google Scholar
Suárez, Javier 2021. ‘El Holobionte/Hologenoma Como Nivel de Selección: Una Aproximación a La Evolución de Los Consorcios de Múltiples Especies’. THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science 36 (1): 81112.Google Scholar
Suárez, Javier and Stencel, Adrian. 2020. ‘A Part-Dependent Account of Biological Individuality: Why Holobionts Are Individuals and Ecosystems Simultaneously’. Biological Reviews 95 (5): 1308–24.Google Scholar
Suárez, Javier and Triviño, Vanessa. 2020. ‘What Is a Hologenomic Adaptation? Emergent Individuality and Inter-Identity in Multispecies Systems’. Frontiers in Psychology 11: 115.Google Scholar
Szathmáry, Eörs. 2015. ‘Toward Major Evolutionary Transitions Theory 2.0’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 112: 10104–11.Google Scholar
Veigl, Sophie J 2017. ‘Use/Disuse Paradigms Are Ubiquitous Concepts in Characterizing the Process of Inheritance’. RNA Biology 14(12): 1700–04.Google Scholar
Veigl, Sophie J, Suárez, Javier, and Stencel, Adrian. 2022. ‘Rethinking Hereditary Relations: The Reconstitutor as the Evolutionary Unit of Heredity’. Synthese 200: 142.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J. 1977. ‘An Experimental Study of Group Selection’. Evolution 31 (1): 134–53.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J. 1979. ‘Sexual Selection and Variance in Reproductive Success’. The American Naturalist 114 (5): 742–7.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J. 1980a. ‘Kin Selection: Its Components’. Science 210(4470): 665–7.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J. 1980b. ‘An Experimental Study of Kin Selection’. Evolution 34(5): 844–55.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J. 1985. ‘Soft Selection, Hard Selection, Kin Selection, and Group Selection’. The American Naturalist 125 (1): 6173.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J. 2016. Adaptation in Metapopulations: How Interaction Changes Evolution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J and McCauley, David E. 1980. ‘Group Selection: The Phenotypic and Genotypic Differentiation of Small Populations’. Evolution 34 (4): 799812.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J and McCauley, David E 1984. ‘Group Selection: The Interaction of Local Deme Size and Migration in the Differentiation of Small Populations’. Evolution 38 (5): 1047–58.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J and McCauley, David E 1988. ‘Extinction and Recolonization: Their Effects on the Genetic Differentiation of Local Populations’. Evolution 42 (5): 9951005.Google Scholar
Wade, Michael J and Griesemer., James 1988. ‘Population Heritability: Empirical Studies of Evolution in Metapopulations’. The American Naturalist 151(2): 135–47.Google Scholar
Wagner, Günter P, Chiu, Chi-hua, and Laubichler, Manfred. 2000. ‘Developmental Evolution as a Mechanistic Science: The Inference from Developmental Mechanisms to Evolutionary Processes’. American Zoologist 40: 819–31.Google Scholar
Williams, George Christopher. 1966. Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought. Vol. 75. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Williams, George Christopher 1990. ‘Review of The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory by Elisabeth Lloyd’. Quarterly Review of Biology 65: 504.Google Scholar
Williams, George Christopher 1992. Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Wilson, David Sloan. 1975. ‘A Theory of Group Selection’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 72 (1): 143–6.Google Scholar
Wilson, David Sloan and Sober, Elliot. 1994. ‘Reintroducing Group Selection to the Human Behavioral Sciences’. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17(4): 585608.Google Scholar
Wimsatt, William C. 1980a. ‘Reductionistic Research Strategies and Their Biases in the Units of Selection Controversy’. In: Nickles, Thomas (ed.) Scientific Discovery: Case Studies.Reidel, Dordrecht, pp. 213–59.Google Scholar
Wimsatt, William C. 1980b. ‘The Units of Selection and the Structure of the Multi-Level Genome’. Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 1980 (2): 122–83.Google Scholar
Wynne-Edwards, Vero Copner. 1962. Animal Dispersion: In Relation to Social Behaviour. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Units of Selection
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Units of Selection
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Units of Selection
Available formats
×