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Biological altruism and the propensity interpretation of fitness| old_uid | 15068 |
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| title | Biological altruism and the propensity interpretation of fitness |
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| start_date | 2018/02/12 |
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| schedule | 16h30-18h30 |
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| online | no |
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| summary | The evolution of altruism has in recent years received considerable attention. But in discussions of the evolution of altruism, it is often unclear what, precisely, biological altruism is. Because biological altruism is based on biological fitness, we must consider how biological altruism should be understood in terms of fitness, and what roles fitness is capable of playing in such a conception. This paper draws on recent work in the philosophy of biology on the propensity interpretation of fitness. In particular, I consider here the implications of arguments that the fitness of an organism is a property of a whole life cycle, and therefore that it does not change in value from moment to moment. Under this conception of fitness, altruism cannot be based on interaction-based fitness exchanges in which the altruist donates fitness to the recipients. We must therefore consider whether and how biological altruism might be defined in terms of a static, lifetime fitness. |
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| responsibles | Bognon-Küss |
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