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On Semantic Pitfalls of Biological Adaptation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Michael T. Ghiselin
Michael T. Ghiselin*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Abstract

“Adaptation” has several meanings which have often been confused, including relations, processes, states, and intrinsic properties. It is used in comparative and historical contexts. “Adaptation” and “environment” may designate probabilistic concepts. Recognition of these points refutes arguments for the notions that: 1) all organisms are perfectly adapted; 2) organisms cannot be ill-adapted and survive or well-adapted and die; 3) adaptation is necessarily relative to the environment; 4) change in environment is necessary for evolution; 5) preadaptation implies teleology. Such notions are associated with metaphysical ideas, and may affect the thinking of biologists.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , June 1966 , pp. 147 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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