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Is Indeterminism the Source of the Statistical Character of Evolutionary Theory?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Leslie Graves ,
Barbara L. Horan  and
Alex Rosenberg
Leslie Graves*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Barbara L. Horan*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Program, Georgia Southern University
Alex Rosenberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia
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Abstract

We argue that Brandon and Carson's (1996) “The Indeterministic Character of Evolutionary Theory” fails to identify any indeterminism that would require evolutionary theory to be a statistical or probabilistic theory. Specifically, we argue that (1) their demonstration of a mechanism by which quantum indeterminism might “percolate up” to the biological level is irrelevant; (2) their argument that natural selection is indeterministic because it is inextricably connected with drift fails to join the issue with determinism; and (3) their view that experimental methodology in botany assumes indeterminism is both false and incompatible with the commitment to discoverable causal mechanisms underlying biological processes. We remain convinced that the probabilism of the theory of evolution is epistemically, not ontologically, motivated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , March 1999 , pp. 140 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Send requests for reprints to Alex Rosenberg, Honors Program, Academic Building, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602.

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