The confusion of natural selection
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This dissertation is divided into four parts: an introduction and three papers. The introduction offers a concise overview of natural selection and elucidates how the three papers are interconnected within this dissertation. Each of the three papers addresses a crucial aspect of natural selection. The first paper delves into the debate on whether natural selection can be characterized as a mechanism within the framework of the new Mechanists. It argues that such characterization is implausible due to the difficulty in identifying appropriate phenomena for which natural selection is responsible. The second paper examines the relationship between adaptive just-so stories and adequate explanations. It argues that some adaptive just-so stories fail to transition into adequate explanations, even when supported by empirical evidence. Furthermore, it suggests that even if certain adaptive just-so stories can transition into adequate explanations, the required evidence differs due to the presence of two models of natural selection. The last paper discusses natural selection explanations involved in evolutionary debunking arguments. It argues against basing these arguments on natural selection, proposing instead that addressing challenges arising from the explanatory scope of natural selection is more plausible through focusing on mutation as the basis for such arguments.
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Ph. D.