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The selectionist rationale for evolutionary progress

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  • Additional Information
    • Publication Date:
      2021
    • Collection:
      IRUA - Institutional Repository van de Universiteit Antwerpen
    • Abstract:
      The dominant view today on evolutionary progress is that it has been thoroughly debunked. Even value-neutral progress concepts are seen to lack important theoretical underpinnings: (1) natural selection provides no rationale for progress, and (2) natural selection need not even be invoked to explain large-scale evolutionary trends. In this paper I challenge this view by analysing how natural selection acts in heterogeneous environments. This not only undermines key debunking arguments, but also provides a selectionist rationale for a pattern of "evolutionary unfolding", where life radiates across an increased range of exploitation of environmental heterogeneity.
    • Relation:
      info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/isi/000658284300001
    • Online Access:
      https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1795980151162165141
      https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docstore/d:irua:7252
    • Rights:
      info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
    • Accession Number:
      edsbas.858950B7