Re: What natural selection can do - whoisyourcreator.com

Garamond Lethe <cartographical@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:50:31 -0400, Steven L. wrote:

backspace wrote:
http://www.whoisyourcreator.com/natural_selection.html

=== What Natural Selection Can Do: === Natural selection can preserve a
change in an existing trait or feature by having organisms with that
change survive and reproduce at a higher rate.

=== rephrase ===
Natural selection preserves a feature by having organisms with that
feature survive.

Question:
Other than noting the feature survived how was the its preservability
measured?

You are arguing that natural selection is a tautology.

This argument has been made many times in the past--and it's been
refuted.

In the modern ToE, fitness is NOT determined by survival and
reproduction. It's a more objective trait, of the organism's abilities
to function in its environment. But even if it has slightly superior
fitness for its environment, it may still be gobbled up by a predator
before it even has a chance to reproduce. Life's a bitch. And who
survives long enough to reproduce is often a matter of luck.

Hmmmm.... my textbook gives the following definitions:

fitness: The number of offspring left by an individual after one
generation. The fitness of an allele is the average fitness of
individuals that carry that allele.

fitness component: Traits, such as survival, mating success, and
reproduction, that combine to determine fitness.

If you have a cite for your definition of fitness I'd be interested to
read it.

It's called the "propensity" definition of fitness. Mostly it's proposed
and defended by philosophers:

Mills, Susan K., and John H. Beatty. 1979. The propensity interpretation
of fitness. Philosophy of Science 46:263-286.

Rosenberg, Alexander. 1982. On the Propensity Definition of Fitness.
Philosophy of Science 49 (2):268-273.

Brandon, Robert, and John Beatty. 1984. The Propensity Interpretation of
'Fitness'--No Interpretation Is No Substitute. Philosophy of Science 51
(2):342-347.

Rosenberg, Alexander, and Mary Williams. 1986. Fitness as Primitive and
Propensity. Philosophy of Science 53 (3):412-418.

Bouchard, Frédéric, and Alex Rosenberg. 2004. Fitness, Probability and
the Principles of Natural Selection. British Journal for the Philosophy
of Science 55 (4):693-712.

Krimbas, Costas B. 2004. On fitness. Biology and Philosophy 19
(2):185-203.

Rosenberg, Alexander, and Frederic Bouchard. 2005. Matthen and Ariew's
obituary for fitness: reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated
Biology and Philosophy 20:343–353.

Abrams, Marshall. 2007. Fitness and Propensity's Annulment? Biology and
Philosophy 22 (1):115-130.

--
John S. Wilkins, Philosophy, University of Sydney
scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts
But al be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: What natural selection can do - whoisyourcreator.com
    ... organisms with that change survive and reproduce at a higher rate. ... You are arguing that natural selection is a tautology. ... slightly superior fitness for its environment, ... And who survives long enough to reproduce is often a ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: What natural selection can do - whoisyourcreator.com
    ... change survive and reproduce at a higher rate. ... Natural selection preserves a feature by having organisms with that ... fitness for its environment, it may still be gobbled up by a predator ... survives long enough to reproduce is often a matter of luck. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: What natural selection can do - whoisyourcreator.com
    ... change survive and reproduce at a higher rate. ... fitness for its environment, it may still be gobbled up by a predator ... survives long enough to reproduce is often a matter of luck. ... Philosophy of Science 49:268-273. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: What natural selection can do - whoisyourcreator.com
    ... change survive and reproduce at a higher rate. ... fitness for its environment, it may still be gobbled up by a predator ... survives long enough to reproduce is often a matter of luck. ... Philosophy of Science 49:268-273. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Felsenstein and reproductive excess
    ... > The central issue is not fitness, but rather the increase of an allele ... An allele increase does ... because sterile forms cannot reproduce at all. ... population of fertile forms. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)