Relative Fitness, Teleology, and the Adaptive Landscape
John O. Reiss
Received: 16 January 2007 / Accepted: 19 January 2007 / Published online: 14 July 2007
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007
Abstract
The metaphor of the adaptive landscape, introduced by Sewall Wright in 1932, has played, and continues to play, a central role in much evolutionary thought. I argue that the use of this metaphor is tied to a teleological view of the evolutionary process, in which natural selection directs evolution toward an improved future state. I argue further that the use of ‘‘relative fitnesses’’ standardized to an arbitrary value, which is closely connected with the metaphor of an adaptive landscape, produces a disconnect between the mean fitness of a population and any real property of that population. This allows for a vague and ill-defined improvement to occur under the influence of selection. Instead, I suggest that relative fitnesses should be standardized by the mean absolute fitness (expected population growth rate), so that they express the expected rate of increase in frequency,rather than number. Under this definition, the mean relative fitness of all populations is always 1.0, and never changes as long as the population continues to exist.
Keywords Fitness landscape Adaptation Fisher Fundamental theorem of natural selection
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NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:
O cenário adaptativo de Sewall Wright has played, and continues to play, a central role in much evolutionary thought. I argue that the use of this metaphor is tied to a teleological view of the evolutionary process, in which natural selection directs evolution toward an improved future state.
Gente, alguém me belisque, mas se for realmente assim, a evolução é um processo teleológico!!! Argh, isso é como ressuscitar Darwin e assassiná-lo sem dó nem piedade!!!
Fui, não sei por que, pensando -- não se faz mais seleção natural como antigamente em 1859... Pobre Darwin, Kaput!!!
