From: danny@cs.su.oz.au (Danny Yee)
Subject: Book Review - The Nature of Selection
Date: 29 Nov 1994 19:19:04 MET
title: The Nature of Selection
: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus
by: Elliott Sober
publisher: The University of Chicago Press 1984
subjects: biology, philosophy
other: 383 pages, bibliography, index
_The Nature of Selection_ is an attempt at a definitive resolution of
the philosophical questions surrounding the concept of "selection" and
its role in evolutionary biology. In the process Sober, of necessity,
delves deeply into general philosophical issues and ranges across
most of evolutionary biology.
The first part of _The Nature of Selection_ deals with the concepts
of fitness, selection and adaptation. Among other things, Sober
argues for a view of evolution as a "theory of forces", counters
claims that evolution by natural selection is tautological, looks at
the differences between causation and explanation, and highlights the
difference between "selection of" and "selection for". All of this is
illustrated with both real examples and thought experiments, and is
set in historical context. The treatment is abstract and technical,
and will most appeal to philosophers, who, even if uninterested in
evolutionary biology per se, will find it a rich source of ideas on
such traditional topics as causality, probability and explanation.
Evolutionary biologists should also pay attention, though some may
find it heavy going and it is easy to predict that others, with
the unfortunately common disdain of scientists for philosophy, will
consider it "angels on the head of a pin" hair-splitting.
The second section deals with the issue of the level (or levels)
at which selection operates. Here Sober extends and elaborates the
theory built up in the first section, and demonstrates that it is
capable of making sense of the many different views of evolution
that have been proposed. This section will be of more interest
to biologists (though some of it is still completely abstract),
particularly those involved in the debates over punctuated equilibrium
and group selection. While Sober doesn't provide a resolution to such
debates (he sees most of them as empirical rather than philosophical),
he does provide a conceptual framework within which to place them.
Sober has tackled the difficult task of writing a book suitable
both for philosophers with little or no background knowledge of
biology and for biologists without philosophical training. He has
succeeded remarkably well, though readers would do well to note his
suggestions, at the end of the introduction, as to which parts of the
book are most likely to interest philosophers and which biologists.
After this, in an amusing piece of hyperbole, he adds: "And finally,
if I were a reader of broad learning and wide interests, I would
read the entire book, even the index, exclaiming loudly all the while
about what a fine time I was having." Now I wasn't vocal about it,
and I certainly didn't read the index, but I did find _The Nature of
Selection_ an extremely enjoyable book. Perhaps more importantly,
as a result of reading it I feel on much more solid ground when
thinking about evolutionary biology.
Though you don't need much background knowledge to appreciate _The
Nature of Selection_, you do need to have a bent towards philosophy.
It is too technical to appeal to much of the potential popular
audience, and probably too specialised for use as an undergraduate
text. The main audience will be philosophers and philosophically
literate biologists, but no one who enjoys philosophy and is interested
in the conceptual issues of evolutionary biology will want to miss
_The Nature of Selection_.
--
Disclaimer: I requested and received a review copy of _The Nature of
Selection_ from the University of Chicago Press, but I have no stake,
financial or otherwise, in its success.
--
%T The Nature of Selection
%S Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus
%A Elliott Sober
%I The University of Chicago Press
%C Chicago
%D 1984
%O paperback, bibliography, index
%G ISBN 0-226-76748-5
%P x,383pp
%K biology, philosophy
Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au)
27 November 1994
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