Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection

Darwinian populations and natural selection is a 2009 book by Peter Godfrey-Smith about populations of evolvable entities.

Abstract:

In 1859 Charles Darwin described a deceptively simple mechanism that he called “natural selection,” a combination of variation, inheritance, and reproductive success. He argued that this mechanism was the key to explaining the most puzzling features of the natural world, and science and philosophy were changed forever as a result. The exact nature of the Darwinian process has been controversial ever since, however. The author draws on new developments in biology, philosophy of science, and other fields to give a new analysis and extension of Darwin's idea. The central concept used is that of a “Darwinian population,” a collection of things with the capacity to undergo change by natural selection. From this starting point, new analyses of the role of genes in evolution, the application of Darwinian ideas to cultural change, and “evolutionary transitions” that produce complex organisms and societies are developed.

Contents

Chapter 3 Variation, Selection, and Origins

Darwinian populations are described along five parameters:

1. H: fidelity of heredity;
2. V: abundance of variation;
3. S: dependence of fitness differences on intrinsic character;
4. C: continuity;
5. a: reproductive competition.