Adaptation and optimality in evolutionary biology: Historical and philosophical perspectives on the interpretations of R.A. Fisher's “Fundamental theorem of natural selection” and the “Formal Darwinism” project

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Highlights

  • This special issue is a contribution to the clarification of the concepts of adaptation, design and optimality.

  • Alan Grafen, Philippe Huneman and Tim Lewens clarify the philosophical and historical significance of formal Darwinism.

  • Warren J. Ewens provides an alternative formulation of R.A. Fisher’s “Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection”.

  • Jonathan Birch and Johannes Martens contrast the relevance of different fitness concepts for explaining adaptations.

  • Cédric Paternotte highlights the problems raised by the “individual-as-maximising-agent” analogy in evolutionary biology.

Section snippets

Acknowledgments

I am hugely grateful to Professor Jean Gayon, whose inspiration was key in launching this editorial project. I am also indebted to my fellow guest editor, Professor Tim Lewens, and to Philippe Huneman for assisting me at various stages of this project. This work has been fundede by the ANR Grant "Explabio" (#13 BSH3 0007) of the CNRS (France), and by the "Laboratoire International Associé CNRS Paris-Montréal ECIEB".

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