Charles Pence (Université Catholique de Louvain)
I argue here that the debate over the causal status of natural selection, genetic drift, and fitness has foundered on an unrecognized issue in the metaphysics of science. It relies on a solution to what I will call "the composition question" -- defining the circumstances in which micro-level causes compose to produce a macro-level causal process. Further, evolutionary biology constitutes a particularly poor environment in which to study this general question regarding causation. I thus claim that this is a place where we must foster engagement between philosophers of biology and metaphysicians of science.
