(This is a rough draft of a paper I am writing for my phil. of biology class. Comments and criticisms are certainly appreciated.)
In this paper I will describe and argue for a position which I will call selective relativity. I follow C. Kenneth Waters in arguing that the debate surrounding which is the uniquely correct level at which selection operates derives in part from a deep-seated conceptual confusion. This confusion is in not realizing that all notions of fitness, selective force, etc. follow from rather than constrain the biologist’s identification of a unit of selection. The only things which constrain the biologist’s choice in unit are pragmatic concerns and I will defend this claim against gene-centrist arguments and counterexamples. Finally, I will demonstrate that all such objections are based in the same conceptual confusion mentioned above. (more…)
