Contingency and Individuality: A Plurality of Evolutionary Individuality Types

Philosophy of Science 84 (5):1104-1116 (2017)
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Abstract

Recently, philosophers have sought to determine the nature of individuals relevant to evolution by natural selection or evolutionary individuals. The Evolutionary Contingency Thesis is a claim about evolution that emphasizes the role of contingency or dependency relations and chance-based factors in how evolution unfolds. In this article, I argue that if we take evolutionary contingency seriously, then we should be pluralists about the types of individuals in selection.

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References found in this work

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Philosophy of Natural Science.Carl G. Hempel - 1967 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 18 (1):70-72.
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Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History.Stephen Jay Gould - 1991 - Journal of the History of Biology 24 (1):163-165.
What is an organism? An immunological answer.Thomas Pradeu - 2010 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 32 (2-3):247-267.

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