Two Uses of Optimality Models in Natural Selection Explanations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48160/18532330me8.161Keywords:
optimality, natural selection, fitness, optimal foraging theoryAbstract
The goal of this paper is to analyze the relations between optimality models and natural selection. We contend that these relationships can be divided into two kinds, as there are two kinds of natural selection explanations, which we call “historical” and “ahistorical”. Historical explanations reveal how a given population acquires a trait which is adaptive in its environment, and involves many generations, variations, etc. Ahistorical ones, explain why, at a given moment, certain kinds of organisms have a greater reproductive success than others. We show that optimality models can play a role in determining the explanandumof historical selectionist explanations, that is, they help us to recognize which traits are adaptive. And, on the other hand, that optimality models sometimes allow us to determine part of the explanansof ahistorical explanations (particularly, the concept of fitness).
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