Discussion: What Does Natural Selection Explain? Correction to Sober

1 September 1988

journal article
Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Philosophy of Science

Vol. 55 (3) , 422-426
https://doi.org/10.1086/289446

Abstract

In this paper I argue against Sober's claim that natural selection does not explain the traits of individuals. Sober argues that natural selection only explains the distribution of traits in a population. My point is that the explanation of an individual's traits involves us in a description of the individual's ancestry, and in an explanation of the distribution of traits in that ancestral population. Thus Sober is wrong, natural selection is part of the explanation of the traits of individuals.

Keywords

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:

Goal-Directed Processes in Biology
The Journal of Philosophy, 1977
Teleological Explanations
Published by University of California Press ,1976
Functional Analysis
The Journal of Philosophy, 1975
Teleological Explanations in Evolutionary Biology
Philosophy of Science, 1970