对布兰登基因选择批判的反思

Rethinking Brandon's Critiques to Genic Selectionism

布兰登是知名生物学哲学家。他对基因选择提出了两个批评,其一为"屏蔽原则",其二为"遗传漂变"批评。"屏蔽原则"认为,自然选择直接作用的对象是高层次实体,而不是基因层次实体。此批评无效,因为基因选择论者从未否认这一点,他们仅强调自然选择的最终作用单位是基因。而"遗传漂变"批评则认为基因型层次对于自然选择的描述在经验上优于基因层次。此批评仍然无效,因为布兰登误用了"遗传漂变"的概念。

Robert Brandon is a wellknown philosopher of biology. He raised two critiques to genic selecfionism, one is the screeningoff criterion, and the other is the genetic drift critique. Screeningoff criterion argues that natural selection directly operates on higher level entities, rather than genie level entities. This critique fails because genie seleetionists never deny this point, and they only claim that natural selection ultimately works on genes. Genetic drift critique argues that a description at the genotypic level is empirically better than a description at the genie level. This critique al so fails because Brandon misuses the concept of genetic drift.