| Publications [#373380] of Caleb Hazelwood
Papers Published
- Hazelwood, C, An Emerging Dilemma for Reciprocal Causation,
Philosophy of Science
(January, 2023),
pp. 1-20, Cambridge University Press (CUP) [doi]
(last updated on 2024/08/25)
Abstract: Among advocates and critics of the "extended evolutionary synthesis"(EES), "reciprocal causation"refers to the view that adaptive evolution is a bidirectional phenomenon, whereby organisms and environments impinge on each other through processes of niche construction and natural selection. I argue that reciprocal causation is incompatible with the view that natural selection is a metaphysically emergent causal process. The emergent character of selection places reciprocal causation on the horns of dilemma, and neither horn can rescue it. I conclude that proponents of the EES must abandon the claim that the process of natural selection features in cycles of reciprocal causation.
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