Dear all, Don't forget that today Serious Metaphysics will see Jonathan Birch presenting "Kin Selection and its Critics" (abstract below). As usual, we'll be meeting at 5:30pm in the Philosophy Faculty Board Room.
All the best, Emily Thomas ______________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: Kin selection and its critics In an incendiary 2010 Nature article, Martin A. Nowak, Corina Tarnita and E.O. Wilson present a savage critique of the best known and most widely used framework for the study of social evolution, W.D. Hamilton's kin selection theory. Over a hundred biologists have since rallied to the theory's defence, but Nowak et al. maintain that their arguments "stand unrefuted". I show that Nowak and colleagues' criticisms are, at heart, philosophical in character, and I consider how the kin selection theorist can respond to them. The debate hinges on the explanatory value of the Price equation, and on the extent to which we are prepared to sacrifice ecological intuitiveness for predictive generality in formulating Hamilton's Rule. _____________________________________________________ Sent by the CamPhilEvents mailing list. To unsubscribe or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents Posts are now archived here: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive
