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    Natural selection and genetic drift can be conceptually d... — Carmelics
    Home/Causation
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    Natural selection and genetic drift can be conceptually distinguished from one another

    Causation
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Drift processes are indiscriminate sampling processes in which heritable physical differences between entities are causally irrelevant to differences in reproductive success
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    • 2.Selection processes are discriminate sampling processes in which heritable physical differences between entities are causally relevant to differences in reproductive success
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    • 3.Process should be distinguished from outcome when characterizing drift and selection
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Any token causal process in a finite population involves both fitness differences and stochastic sampling, making their separation physically impossible.
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    • 2.Matthen and Ariew argue that 'natural selection' names a population-level statistical trend, not a discrete causal force separable from drift at the level of actual events.
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    • 3.If selection and drift cannot be distinguished in any particular causal token, the conceptual distinction tracks no real distinction in nature.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Walsh, Lewens, and Ariew contend that drift and selection are both mathematical abstractions over individual birth-death events, not independently instantiated causal processes.
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    • 2.Because the same individual organism's death can simultaneously constitute a drift event and a selection event under different descriptions, the distinction is description-relative, not ontological.
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    Causation

    Related

    Any token causal process in a finite population involves both fitness difference...Because the same individual organism's death can simultaneously constitute a dri...Drift and selection should be characterized as processes rather than outcomesDrift processes are indiscriminate sampling processes in which heritable physica...
    +5 moreShow less
    If selection and drift cannot be distinguished in any particular causal token, t...Matthen and Ariew argue that 'natural selection' names a population-level statis...Process should be distinguished from outcome when characterizing drift and selec...Selection processes are discriminate sampling processes in which heritable physi...Walsh, Lewens, and Ariew contend that drift and selection are both mathematical ...

    Similar

    Disproving drift as the cause of gene frequency fluctuations does not ...86%Every natural system undergoing selection also undergoes drift85%It is reasonable to conceive of drift and natural selection as populat...84%Process should be distinguished from outcome when characterizing drift...83%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: genetic-drift
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    As will be discussed further below, much of the twentieth century was marked by debates among biologists about the relative importance of drift and selection in evolution. Were those debates at least in part the result of conceptual unclarity? Millstein (2002) argues that we need not accept this inadvertent consequence of Beatty’s argument, and that selection can, in fact, be distinguished from drift. In order to do this, three extensions should be made to Beatty’s account. First, similar to Hod
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit