Milam, Erika and Millstein, Roberta and Potochnik, Angela and Roughgarden, Joan
(2011)
Sex and Sensibility: The Role of Social Selection, A Review Symposium of Roughgarden's \emphThe Genial Gene.
[Preprint]
Abstract
For Potochnik's essay: As detailed in The Genial Gene (2009), Joan Roughgarden's conception of social selection involves twenty-six empirical hypotheses regarding the evolution of a variety of traits related to sexual reproduction, gender, and the rearing of offspring. Yet Roughgarden sets out to show something even beyond this array of empirical hypotheses. Her contention is that cooperation is `basic to biological nature'. In this paper, I investigate the role that this claim plays in Roughgarden's work. This investigation clarifies the relationship between Roughgarden's social selection theory and extant sexual selection theory. It also clarifies the nature of Roughgarden's criticisms of other accounts of the evolution of cooperation, including kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and group selection. My purpose is twofold: this investigation helps put social selection theory into perspective, and it analyzes an episode of science where broad-scope theoretical claims are plainly entangled with empirical hypotheses.
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Altmetric.com
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/text.png)
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}