Prieto, Guido I. (2025) Individuality and selection redux. [Preprint]
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
Prieto_Individuality and selection redux.pdf - Submitted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (1MB) |
Abstract
This review offers a critical examination of the relationship between individuality and natural selection. First, I challenge the widely held Individuality Assumption—the idea that an entity must be an individual to function as a unit of selection. Through a systematic analysis of the main concepts of units of selection and evolutionary individuals, I show that the Individuality Assumption is untenable: biological entities can play important evolutionary roles in the process of natural selection without qualifying as individuals in any significant sense. Second, I shed light on the conceptual and theoretical relationship between the debates on the units of selection and evolutionary individuality, which have largely grown independently and are often treated separately. Third, I contend that the relationship between individuality and selection is obscured by the tendency to construe evolutionary individuality in terms of evolvability. To overcome this problem, I propose an integrative framework that connects the different concepts of units of selection and evolutionary individuals with a philosophical account of individuality. This framework is visualized in the form of an Individuality Space that serves as a heuristic tool to further investigate the relationship between individuality and selection. I illustrate its utility by applying it to evolutionary transitions in individuality.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Additional Information: | Manuscript currently under review in The Quarterly Review of Biology (submitted December 21st, 2025) | ||||||
| Keywords: | biological individuality, Darwinian individuality, evolutionary individuality, evolutionary transitions in individuality, individuality space, levels of selection, organismality, units of selection | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Natural Kinds General Issues > Structure of Theories |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Dr. Guido I. Prieto | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 07 Feb 2026 19:24 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 07 Feb 2026 19:24 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 28139 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Natural Kinds General Issues > Structure of Theories |
||||||
| Date: | 21 December 2025 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/28139 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}