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  1. added 2019-01-30
    Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century: Philosophy, Human Nature and the Collapse of Civilization-- Articles and Reviews 2006-2017 2nd Edition Feb 2018.Michael Starks - 2016 - Las Vegas, USA: Reality Press.
    This collection of articles was written over the last 10 years and edited to bring them up to date (2019). All the articles are about human behavior (as are all articles by anyone about anything), and so about the limitations of having a recent monkey ancestry (8 million years or much less depending on viewpoint) and manifest words and deeds within the framework of our innate psychology as presented in the table of intentionality. As famous evolutionist Richard Leakey says, it (...)
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  2. added 2018-12-17
    Kin Selection: A Philosophical Analysis.Jonathan Birch - 2013 - Dissertation, University of Cambridge
    This dissertation examines the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the most general and most widely used framework for understanding social evolution, W. D. Hamilton's theory of kin selection. While the core idea is intuitive enough (when organisms share genes, they sometimes have an evolutionary incentive to help one another), its apparent simplicity masks a host of conceptual subtleties, and the theory has proved a perennial source of controversy in evolutionary biology. To move towards a resolution of these controversies, we need (...)
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  3. added 2018-11-13
    Does "Fitness" Fit the Facts?: A Reply to Williams and Rosenberg's Rejoinder.Elliott Sober - 1987 - Journal of Philosophy 84 (4):220-223.
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  4. added 2018-11-13
    Fact, Fiction, and Fitness.Elliott Sober - 1984 - Journal of Philosophy 81 (7):372-383.
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  5. added 2018-06-27
    What is an Organism? An Immunological Answer.Thomas Pradeu - 2010 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 32 (2-3):247-267.
    The question “What is an organism?”, formerly considered as essential in biology, has now been increasingly replaced by a larger question, “What is a biological individual?”. On the grounds that i) individuation is theory-dependent, and ii) physiology does not offer a theory, biologists and philosophers of biology have claimed that it is the theory of evolution by natural selection which tells us what counts as a biological individual. Here I show that one physiological field, immunology, offers a theory, which makes (...)
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  6. added 2018-03-08
    A Unifying Theory of Biological Function.J. H. van Hateren - 2017 - Biological Theory 12 (2):112-126.
    A new theory that naturalizes biological function is explained and compared with earlier etiological and causal role theories. Etiological theories explain functions from how they are caused over their evolutionary history. Causal role theories analyze how functional mechanisms serve the current capacities of their containing system. The new proposal unifies the key notions of both kinds of theories, but goes beyond them by explaining how functions in an organism can exist as factors with autonomous causal efficacy. The goal-directedness and normativity (...)
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  7. added 2018-02-02
    Dos usos de los modelos de optimalidad en las explicaciones por selección natural.Santiago Ginnobili & Ariel Roffé - 2017 - Metatheoria 8 (1):43-55.
    Resumen -/- El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar las relaciones entre los modelos de optimalidad y la selección natural. Defenderemos que esas relaciones pueden dividirse en dos tipos, en tanto hay dos tipos de explicaciones seleccionistas, que llamaremos “históricas” y “ahistóricas”. Las explicaciones históricas revelan como una población dada adquiere un rasgo que es adaptativo en ese ambiente e involucran muchas generaciones, variación, etc. Las explicaciones ahistóricas, explican por qué, en determinado momento, ciertos tipos de organismos tienen un (...)
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  8. added 2017-09-04
    Evolutionary Debunking: The Milvian Bridge Destabilized.Christos Kyriacou - forthcoming - Synthese:1-19.
    Recent literature has paid attention to a demarcation problem for evolutionary debunking arguments. This is the problem of asking in virtue of what regulative metaepistemic norm evolutionary considerations either render a belief justified, or debunk it as unjustified. I examine the so-called ‘Milvian Bridge principle’ (cf. Griffiths and Wilkins (2012, 2015)), which offers exactly such a called for regulative metaepistemic norm. The Milvian Bridge principle suggests that the metaepistemic norm is: adaptive reliability for truth of cognitive processes that the existence (...)
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  9. added 2017-08-31
    Fitness Maximization.Jonathan Birch - 2018 - In Richard Joyce (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy. London: Routledge. pp. 49-63.
    Is there any way to reconcile the adaptationist’s image of natural selection as an engine of optimality with the more complex image of its dynamics we get from population genetics? This has long been an important strand in the controversy surrounding adaptationism, yet debate has been hampered by a tendency to conflate various different ways of thinking about maximization. Here I distinguish four varieties of maximization principle. I then discuss the logical relations between these varieties, arguing that, although they may (...)
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  10. added 2017-02-14
    Interaction Order and Beyond: A Field Analysis of Body Culture Within Fitness Gyms.Roberta Sassatelli - 1999 - Body and Society 5 (2-3):227-248.
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  11. added 2017-02-08
    Review of Daniel W. McShea and Robert N. Brandon, Biology's First Law. [REVIEW]Mohan Matthen - 2011 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2011 (1).
    McShea and Brandon propose that in the absence of constraint, biological diversity increases spontaneously. While heuristically useful, the thesis is unclear and of dubious empirical validity. The authors have no natural way to distinguish entropic decrease of diversity from the kind of increase that they are interested in. They make unsupported claims about how to explain dramatic increases of diversity and increases of functional complexity.
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  12. added 2017-02-01
    Evolutionary Plasticity in Prokaryotes: A Panglossian View.Marcel Weber - 1996 - Biology and Philosophy 11 (1):67-88.
    Enzyme directed genetic mechanisms causing random DNA sequence alterations are ubiquitous in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. A number of molecular geneticist have invoked adaptation through natural selection to account for this fact, however, alternative explanations have also flourished. The population geneticist G.C. Williams has dismissed the possibility of selection for mutator activity on a priori grounds. In this paper, I attempt a refutation of Williams' argument. In addition, I discuss some conceptual problems related to recent claims made by microbiologists on (...)
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  13. added 2017-01-29
    Fitness for Work.T. H. Pear - 1929 - Journal of Philosophical Studies 4 (13):144-145.
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  14. added 2017-01-29
    Lawrence J. Henderson, The Fitness of the Environment. [REVIEW]J. A. Thomson - 1913 - Hibbert Journal 12:220.
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  15. added 2017-01-28
    Dr. George Sheehan on Getting Fit & Feeling Great.George Sheehan - 1992
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  16. added 2017-01-28
    Fitness.Robert Pargetter - 1987 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 68 (1):44.
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  17. added 2017-01-28
    The Fitness of the Environment an Inquiry Into the Biological Significance of the Properties of Matter. Introd. By George Wald. --. [REVIEW]Lawrence Joseph Henderson - 1970 - P. Smith.
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  18. added 2017-01-28
    Fitness for Work. [REVIEW]W. M. Kyle - 1929 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 7 (2):154.
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  19. added 2017-01-28
    HENDERSON, L. J. -The Fitness of the Environment. [REVIEW]J. C. Irvine - 1914 - Mind 23:436.
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  20. added 2017-01-27
    ‘From Man to Bacteria’: W.D. Hamilton, the Theory of Inclusive Fitness, and the Post-War Social Order.Sarah A. Swenson - 2015 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 49:45-54.
  21. added 2017-01-27
    Crusaders for Fitness: The History of American Health Reformers. [REVIEW]Roger Cooter - 1984 - British Journal for the History of Science 17 (1):92-93.
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  22. added 2017-01-27
    The Fitness of the Environment.J. Y. Simpson - 1914 - Philosophical Review 23:236.
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  23. added 2017-01-27
    Enderson's The Fitness of the Environment. [REVIEW]Arthur Mitchell - 1913 - Journal of Philosophy 10 (25):691.
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  24. added 2017-01-26
    On the Transfer of Fitness From the Cell to the Organism.Richard E. Michod - forthcoming - Biology and Philosophy.(Forthcoming).
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  25. added 2017-01-26
    What Is a Symbiotic Superindividual and How Do You Measure Its Fitness?Frédéric Bouchard - 2013 - In Philippe Huneman & Frédéric Bouchard (eds.), From Groups to Individuals. Evolution and Emerging Individuality. MIT Press. pp. 243.
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  26. added 2017-01-26
    Analyzing and Comparing the Geometry of Individual Fitness.Stephen F. Chenoweth, John Hunt & Howard D. Rundle - 2012 - In E. Svensson & R. Calsbeek (eds.), The Adaptive Landscape in Evolutionary Biology. Oxford University Press. pp. 126.
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  27. added 2017-01-26
    Mimicry, Saltational Evolution, and the Crossing of Fitness Valleys.Olof Leimar, Birgitta S. Tullberg & James Mallet - 2012 - In E. Svensson & R. Calsbeek (eds.), The Adaptive Landscape in Evolutionary Biology. Oxford University Press. pp. 259.
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  28. added 2017-01-26
    Analyzing and Comparing the Geometry of Individual Fitness Surfaces.S. F. Chenoweth, J. Hunt & H. D. Rundle - 2012 - In E. Svensson & R. Calsbeek (eds.), The Adaptive Landscape in Evolutionary Biology. Oxford University Press. pp. 126--149.
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  29. added 2017-01-26
    A Transdisciplinary Perspective Concerning the Origin of the Species: The Migratory Theory of Genetic Fitness.Da de MontoyaPeck, N. L. Montoya & C. P. Montoya - 2009 - World Futures 65 (3):166-175.
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  30. added 2017-01-26
    Fitness.Frédéric Bouchard - 2006 - In J. Pfeifer & Sahotra Sarkar (eds.), The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia. Psychology Press. pp. 310--315.
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  31. added 2017-01-26
    Darwinian Dynamics: Evolutionary Transitions in Fitness and Individuality. By Richard E. Michod.P. S. Timiras - 2002 - The European Legacy 7 (4):532-532.
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  32. added 2017-01-26
    Natural Selection and Fitness.Theodosius Dobzhansky - 1963 - The Eugenics Review 55 (2):129.
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  33. added 2017-01-26
    Biological Fitness in Man.Charles B. Goodhart - 1960 - The Eugenics Review 52 (2):83.
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  34. added 2017-01-26
    Scapular Types and Human Fitness: A Study of an Outward Sign of Biological Efficiency.William Washington Graves - 1931 - The Eugenics Review 23 (3):215.
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  35. added 2017-01-25
    Trait Fitness is Not a Propensity, but Fitness Variation Is.Elliott Sober - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44 (3):336-341.
    The propensity interpretation of fitness draws on the propensity interpretation of probability, but advocates of the former have not attended sufficiently to problems with the latter. The causal power of C to bring about E is not well-represented by the conditional probability Pr. Since the viability fitness of trait T is the conditional probability Pr, the viability fitness of the trait does not represent the degree to which having the trait causally promotes surviving. The same point holds for fertility fitness. (...)
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  36. added 2017-01-25
    Fitness Landscapes of Complex Systems: Insights and Implications On Managing a Conflict Environment of Organizations.Sergey Samoilenko - 2008 - Emergence: Complexity and Organization 10 (4).
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  37. added 2017-01-25
    The Effects of Nematode Infection and Mi-Mediated Resistance in Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) on Plant Fitness.Brandon P. Corbett - 2007 - Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal 8.
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  38. added 2017-01-25
    Darwinian Dynamics: Evolutionary Transitions in Fitness and Individuality by Richard E. Michod.Jeffrey Ihara - 1999 - Complexity 5 (1):42-43.
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  39. added 2017-01-25
    Fitness of Professionals and Skilled Workers in Poland.Elzbieta Rogucka & Zygmunt Welon - 1996 - Journal of Biosocial Science 28 (2):161-176.
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  40. added 2017-01-25
    Anthropometric Measurements and Darwinian Fitness.William H. Mueller, Gabriel W. Lasker & F. Gaynor Evans - 1981 - Journal of Biosocial Science 13 (3):309.
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  41. added 2017-01-24
    Autism as the Low-Fitness Extreme of a Parentally Selected Fitness Indicator.Andrew Shaner, Geoffrey Miller & Jim Mintz - 2008 - Human Nature 19 (4):389-413.
    Siblings compete for parental care and feeding, while parents must allocate scarce resources to those offspring most likely to survive and reproduce. This could cause offspring to evolve traits that advertise health, and thereby attract parental resources. For example, experimental evidence suggests that bright orange filaments covering the heads of North American coot chicks may have evolved for this fitness-advertising purpose. Could any human mental disorders be the equivalent of dull filaments in coot chicks—low-fitness extremes of mental abilities that evolved (...)
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  42. added 2017-01-24
    Correlation Analysis of Coupled Fitness Landscapes.Wim Hordijk & Stuart A. Kauffman - 2005 - Complexity 10 (6):41-49.
  43. added 2017-01-23
    Increasingly Radical Claims About Heredity and Fitness.Eugene Earnshaw-Whyte - 2012 - Philosophy of Science 79 (3):396-412.
  44. added 2017-01-23
    The Three Faces of Ecological Fitness.Kent A. Peacock - 2011 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C 42 (1):99-105.
    This paper argues that fitness is most usefully understood as those properties of organisms that are explanatory of survival in the broadest sense, not merely descriptive of reproductive success. Borrowing from Rosenberg and Bouchard , fitness in this sense is ecological in that it is defined by the interactions between organisms and environments. There are three sorts of ecological fitness: the well-documented ability to compete, the ability to cooperate , and a third sense of fitness that has received insufficient attention (...)
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  45. added 2017-01-22
    A Structural Description of Evolutionary Theory.Robert N. Brandon - 1980 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1980:427 - 439.
    The principle of natural selection is stated. It connects fitness values (actual reproductive success) with expected fitness values. The term 'adaptedness' is used for expected fitness values. The principle of natural selection explains differential fitness in terms of relative adaptedness. It is argued that this principle is absolutely central to Darwinian evolutionary theory. The empirical content of the principle of natural selection is examined. It is argued that the principle itself has no empirical biological content, but that the presuppositions of (...)
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  46. added 2017-01-21
    Quasi-Independence, Fitness, and Advantageousness.Kevin Brosnan - 2009 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C 40 (3):228-234.
    I argue that the idea of ‘quasi-independence’ [Lewontin, R. C. . Adaptation. Scientific American, 239, 212–230] cannot be understood without attending to the distinction between fitness and advantageousness [Sober, E. . Philosophy of biology. Boulder: Westview Press]. Natural selection increases the frequency of fitter traits, not necessarily of advantageous ones. A positive correlation between an advantageous trait and a disadvantageous one may prevent the advantageous trait from evolving. The quasi-independence criterion is aimed at specifying the conditions under which advantageous traits (...)
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  47. added 2017-01-21
    Training for Fitness: Reconsidering the 80-Hour Work Week.Catherine V. Caldicott & James W. Holsapple - 2008 - Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 51 (1):134-143.
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  48. added 2017-01-21
    Block Fitness.Grant Ramsey - 2006 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C 37 (3):484-498.
    There are three related criteria that a concept of fitness should be able to meet: it should render the principle of natural selection non-tautologous and it should be explanatory and predictive. I argue that for fitness to be able to fulfill these criteria, it cannot be a property that changes over the course of an individual’s life. Rather, I introduce a fitness concept—Block Fitness—and argue that an individual’s genes and environment fix its fitness in such a way that each individual’s (...)
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  49. added 2017-01-21
    Evolution, Green Beards, and Skin Hue Wage Discrimination.Gregory Price - 2000 - World Futures 55 (4):341-355.
    This paper provides an evolutionary rationale for both interracial and intraracial wage differentials by examining the implications of white employers mediating their employer?employee relationships on the basis of genetic similarity. If in organized labor markets; relationships mediated through genetic similarity are optimal in terms of Darwinian fitness, a fundamental evolutionary implication is that the Marginal Rate of Substitution (MRS) in Darwinian fitness holding extended fitness constant equals the MRS in preferences holding utility constant. Given such an evolutionary equilibrium, results are (...)
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  50. added 2017-01-19
    Fitness Among Competitive Agents: A Brief Note.William Dembski - manuscript
    The upshot of the No Free Lunch theorems is that averaged over all fitness functions, evolutionary computation does no better than blind search (see Dembski 2002, ch 4 as well as Dembski 2005 for an overview). But this raises a question: How does evolutionary computation obtain its power since, clearly, it is capable of doing better than blind search? One approach is to limit the fitness functions (see Igel and Toussaint 2001). Another, illustrated in David Fogel’s work on automated checker (...)
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1 — 50 / 173