Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Dark Knight Bob · 02-27-2005, 02:11 PM

Found an interesting article here dealing with the problems of pinning down an accurate generalised statistical definition of 'fitness' with regard to Natural Selection.

Abstract

Quote:

We argue that a fashionable interpretation of the theory of natural selection as a claim exclusively about populations is mistaken. The interpretation rests on adopting an analysis of fitness as a probabilistic propensity which cannot be substantiated, draws parallels with thermodynamics which are without foundations, and fails to do justice to the fundamental distinction between drift and selection. This distinction requires a notion of fitness as a pairwise comparison between individuals taken two at a time, and so vitiates the interpretation of the theory as one about populations exclusively

It's by no means written for the lamen, though if you've read any of Dawkins books (mainly to do with ideas such as genetic drift etc) and have a somewhat basic knowledge in statistics and probability you won't have too much trouble with it.

Link taken from here

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