Re: Levels of selection (Was: Can cognition override natural

In <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Guy Hoelzer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>> It is well established that group selection can only arise if
>> there are barriers to gene flow in the population - and that
>> those barriers neet to restrict gene flow a lot if there are
>> to be adaptations that can be said to be for the benefit of
>> groups.

>I think this is an outrageous claim.  The only folks who think that any such
>thing is "well established" are the gene-selection advocates.

I think Maynard-Smith would reject that claim as well ("How to 
model evolution," in "The Latest on the Best").

Elisabeth Lloyd emphasizes that the question of the level on which
selection occurs is separate from the question of what entity 
benefits from selection, or what entity becomes adapted as a result. 
In addition adaptation is sometimes defined as any result of the
selection process, but is at other times defined in an often
contradictory manner -- as traits that are good for their owners,
as "good engineering."

She writes:

    On my analysis, a great deal of the heat in the debates 
    about group selection has arisen because one set of 
    researchers, including Maynard Smith, Dawkins, and G. C. 
    Williams, attribute group selection only when there is a 
    group adaptation in the engineering sense, while others, 
    including Wade, D. S. Wilson, and Uyenoyama and Feldman, 
    do not see such an adaptation as necessary in order to 
    establish group selection. More recently, however. Maynard 
    Smith has moved in the direction of Wright, and agreed that 
    the question of group-level adaptation in (what I call here) 
    the engineering sense is supplementary to the question of 
    whether the group is an interactor, or whether group 
    selection is producing adaptations in the product of 
    selection sense. In sum, when asking the question about 
    whether a given level of entity has acquired adaptations 
    as a result of a selection process, it is necessary to 
    state not only the level in question, but also the notion 
    of adaptation--either product of selection or engineering--
    being used.