Puzzles for ZFEL, McShea and Brandon’s zero force evolutionary law
Barrett, M., Clatterbuck, H., Goldsby, M., Helgeson, C.
, McLoone, B., Pearce, T., Sober, E., Stern, R. & Weinberger, N.
(2012).
Puzzles for ZFEL, McShea and Brandon’s zero force evolutionary law.
Biology and Philosophy,
27(5), 723-735.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-012-9321-7
, McLoone, B., Pearce, T., Sober, E., Stern, R. & Weinberger, N.
(2012).
Puzzles for ZFEL, McShea and Brandon’s zero force evolutionary law.
Biology and Philosophy,
27(5), 723-735.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-012-9321-7
In their 2010 book, Biology’s First Law, D. McShea and R. Brandon present a principle that they call “ZFEL,” the zero force evolutionary law. ZFEL says (roughly) that when there are no evolutionary forces acting on a population, the population’s complexity (i.e., how diverse its member organisms are) will increase. Here we develop criticisms of ZFEL and describe a different law of evolution; it says that diversity and complexity do not change when there are no evolutionary causes.