Sober Elliott, 2014- the-nature-of-selection-evolutionary-theory-in-philosophical-focus

“Clarity is difficult in an evolving science. It is a permanent goal, a possible consequence of struggle. But it is never attained once and for all. [...] More insidious than the fog is the mirage.”

“A single visual impression can be produced in many ways. The impression of an oasis might be caused by a real oasis on the horizon, or by something else. [...] When we are taken in by an illusion, we err in an inference from effect to cause.”

“Scientists try to characterize a range of possible causes of evolution, and then to determine which of these possibilities actually obtained. The actual is understood by first embedding it in the possible.”

E. Sober, The Nature of Selection, rozdz. 1, s. 14 (PDF: 24). “Natural selection is one kind of cause. Selection can produce evolution, but there are other mechanisms that are capable of doing the same thing.”

E. Sober, The Nature of Selection, rozdz. 1, s. 19 (PDF: 29). “In the absence of some alternative plausible mechanism, the argument from design deserved to be taken seriously. Darwin’s contribution was to develop a nontheistic alternative.”

“When a characteristic becomes prevalent in a population, one possible explanation is that this happened in virtue of Darwinian selection among individuals. But as with any inference from effect to cause, we must recognize that a given effect may, in theory, be produced in various ways.”

“Selection for jaws will bring chins along as a free rider. [...] But if architectural constraints tie traits together in packages, the power of natural selection to produce novelty will be reduced.”

E. Sober, The Nature of Selection, rozdz. 4, s. 104-105 (PDF: 114-115). “The randomness of mutation does not mean that mutations are inherently unpredictable. [...] The defensible idea in the claim that mutation is random is simply that mutations do not occur because they would be beneficial.”

“The world we live in may simply be such that certain questions are very hard to answer. If so, the difficulties that biologists find in applying a theory may actually be a sign not of the theory’s imperfection but of its adequacy.”

“Since biological populations must be finite, there is no doubt that chance plays a role in evolution. The question that interests biologists is not whether this is true but how important the role of chance has been.”

“The propositions that allow an event to be predicted may fail to explain why it occurs.”

“If a neutral trait is pleiotropically linked to an advantageous one, it may emerge because of a process of natural selection. It was selected, but this doesn’t mean that it is an adaptation. The reason is that although it was selected, there was no selection for that trait.”

“That an individual selection explanation is possible doesn’t show that it is true. [...] One needs to carefully distinguish a possible effect of an evolutionary process (group benefit) from one of its possible causes (group selection).”

E. Sober, The Nature of Selection, rozdz. 8, s. 282 (PDF: 290). “Thus correlation isn’t sufficient for causation. [...] So correlation isn’t necessary for causation.”