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Quote by Elliott Sober

“One influential philosophical position about the use of probability in science holds that probabilities are objective only if they are based on micro-physics; all other probabilities should be interpreted subjectively, as merely revealing our ignorance about physical details. I have argued against this position, contending that the objectivity of micro-physical probabilities entails the objectivity of macro-probabilities.”

Quote by Elliott Sober

Author

Elliott Sober is a renowned American philosopher known for his work in the fields of scientific philosophy and epistemology. His research focuses on scientific reasoning, probability interpretation, and philosophical methodology. Born on June 6, 1948, Sober has made significant contributions to the field of philosophy, particularly in scientific philosophy. more

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“Darwin repeatedly used the hypothesis of common ancestry as a platform on which to build his various ideas about testing hypotheses concerning natural selection. He also argued that adaptive similarities provide little or no evidence for common ancestry. Although this second claim needs to be fine-tuned, Darwin was right that ample evidence for common ancestry can exist even if none of the characteristics we observe were caused to evolve by natural selection.”

Ifs Needs Littles Ideas Used Natural Common Fine Evidence Claims Various Evolve Characteristics Platforms Hypothesis Selection Testing Similarity Natural Selection Ancestry Adaptive

Author:Elliott Sober

“The big picture, I think, is that common ancestry is evidentially prior to natural selection in Darwin's theory and in contemporary evolutionary biology as well.”

Thinking Wells Bigs Natural Common Theory Contemporary Biology Selection Natural Selection Ancestry Big Picture Evolutionary Biology

Author:Elliott Sober

“If the organisms in a species now have trait T, and this trait now helps those organisms to survive and reproduce because the trait has effect E, a natural hypothesis to consider is that T evolved in the lineage leading to those current organisms because T had effect E. This hypothesis is "natural," but it often isn't true!”

Ifs Helping Natural Effects Species Currents Traits Organisms Hypothesis Lineage

Author:Elliott Sober

“Darwin and his successors have railed against the fallacy of confusing the current utility of a trait with the reason the trait evolved. For example, Darwin argued that skull sutures in mammals did not evolve because they facilitate live birth; the sutures were in place well before live birth evolved. Checking the chronological order in which different traits evolved in a lineage is one way to test an adaptive hypothesis; the fact of common ancestry is what makes that checking possible.”

“Another way to test hypotheses about adaptation is to consider trait variation across a group of species instead of focusing on the trait of a single species. Rather than seeking to explain why polar bears have fur of a certain thickness, one tries to explain why bears in colder climates have thicker fur than bears in warmer climates. The former problem is hard to solve, since it is hard to say exactly what fur thickness polar bears should have if natural selection guided the evolution of that trait.”

“Who wins a... competition [between two traits] is massively context sensitive.”

Two Winning Competition Sensitive Traits

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“It simply isn't true, for example, that being big is in general better for fitness than being small except when there are effects of interacting variables; or that flying slow and high is in general better for fitness than flying fast and low except when there are effects of interacting variables; or that being monogamous is in general better for fitness than being polygamous... except when there are effects of interacting variables... It's not that the underlying generalizations are there but imperceptible in the ambient noise.”

Bigs Effects Example Lows Flying Noise Variables Interacting Generalization Ambient

Author:Jerry Fodor

“The theory of natural selection reduces to a banal truth: if a kind of creature flourishes in a kind of situation, then there must be something about such creatures (or about such situations, or about both) in virtue of which it does so.”

Ifs Kind Doe Natural Situation Virtue Theory Creatures Selection Natural Selection

Author:Jerry Fodor

“Trait X is fitter than trait Y in a population of organisms if those organisms have other biological traits T and live in an environment that has properties E. The theory of natural selection is filled with statements of this form.”

Ifs Form Natural Environment Theory Filled Property Population Statements Traits Organisms Selection Natural Selection

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“I think that the existence of Beethoven is remarkable, but I do not bristle at the suggestion that this event had a low probability given the initial state of the universe.”

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