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Philosophical foundations for the hierarchy of life

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Abstract

We review Evolution and the Levels of Selection by Samir Okasha. This important book provides a cohesive philosophical framework for understanding levels-of-selections problems in biology. Concerning evolutionary transitions, Okasha proposes that three stages characterize the shift from a lower level of selection to a higher one. We discuss the application of Okasha’s three-stage concept to the evolutionary transition from unicellularity to multicellularity in the volvocine green algae. Okasha’s concepts are a provocative step towards a more general understanding of the major evolutionary transitions; however, the application of certain ideas to the volvocine model system is not straightforward.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. Page references are to Evolution and the Levels of Selection unless otherwise stated. We are grateful to Matthew Herron and Aurora Nedelcu for discussions of the ideas in this essay.

  2. Okasha also notes that Lewontin and Maynard Smith treat reproduction as a prerequisite of natural selection, not a product of it. [For a fuller description of the issues implicit in this view, see Okasha (2006), p. 14 and Griesemer (2000)].

  3. Herron and Michod’s (2008) analysis indicates that the presence of ECM as well as genetic modulation of cell number are likely ancestral to all colonial species. The order of emergence of these two traits could not be resolved, but they hypothesize that presence of ECM preceded genetic modulation of cell number.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Deborah E. Shelton & Richard E. Michod

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  1. Deborah E. Shelton
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  2. Richard E. Michod
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Correspondence to Deborah E. Shelton.

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Shelton, D.E., Michod, R.E. Philosophical foundations for the hierarchy of life. Biol Philos 25, 391–403 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-009-9160-3

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