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A Philosophical Evaluation of Adaptationism as a Heuristic Strategy

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Abstract

Adaptationism has prompted many a debate in philosophy of biology but the focus is usually on empirical and explanatory issues rather than methodological adaptationism (MA). Likewise, the context of evolutionary biology has provided the grounding for most discussions of the heuristic role of adaptationism. This paper extends the debate by drawing on case studies from physiology and systems biology to discuss the productive and problematic aspects of adaptationism in functional as well as evolutionary studies at different levels of biological organization. Gould and Lewontin’s Spandrels-paper famously criticized adaptationist methodology for implying a risk of generating ‘blind spots’ with respect to non-selective effects on evolution. Some have claimed that this bias can be accommodated through the testing of evolutionary hypotheses. Although this is an important aspect of overcoming the pitfalls of adaptationism, I argue that the issue of methodological biases is broader than the question of testability. I demonstrate the productivity of adaptationist heuristics but also discuss the deeper problematic aspects associated with the imperialistic tendencies of the strong account of MA.

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Notes

  1. For a criticism of the analogy see Houston (2009).

  2. Distinctions between MA and EA were made earlier (Mayr 1983; Sober 1993, 1996). Godfrey-Smith’s (2001) account includes a third position called ‘explanatory adaptationism’ (ExA), whereas Lewens (2009) increases the number of types to seven. Since I shall mainly focus on MA in this paper, the distinction between MA and EA will suffice for this paper. ExA can arguably also be seen as a part of what I define as strong MA—an imperialistic account of MA that may also influence explanatory ideals in biology (Sects. 3, 4).

  3. They would, however, object to a strong form of EA that considers developmental constraints only as non-directional limitations to selection.

  4. The name originates from early speculations by whalers that the oil could be the whale’s sperm but this idea was rejected as oil was also found in females (Whitehead 2003).

  5. It is now known that the spermaceti organ is not homologous to the sound-conducting organ in dolphins (called the melon) but to the right anterior bursae in the phonic lips.

  6. For similar claims see (Alon 2007b, c; Shen-Orr et al. 2002).

  7. Reichenbach’s famous distinction between a context of discovery and of justification has been questioned since the 1970s, in particular in recent practice-oriented philosophical accounts (Schickore and Steinle (ed) 2009). These have argued that discovery and justification are both theoretically and temporally related.

  8. I have greatly benefitted from discussions with Arnon Levy and William Bechtel regarding this issue.

  9. The example is analogous to Coddington’s “Two-Horn Rhinoceros Problem” (Sober 1993, 123). Even if horns in rhinos (or phonic lips in porpoises) are clear examples of adaptations, it does not follow that selection explains why some species have two instances of the trait. Similarly, the selective advantage of some network motifs does not show that the general overabundance is due to the same evolutionary mechanism.

  10. For well-understood and simple molecular traits developing over short evolutionary time scales direct experimentation may be possible. When evolutionary experiments in vivo or in silico are possible, testing of adaptive hypotheses can be easier than for the macrolevel. This problematizes any strong distinction between the ramifications of MA with respect to organizational levels.

  11. It is however compatible with the aim of studying the effects of selection. Selective constraints can be added to the model to identify the integrated long-term effects of mutational priming and selection.

Abbreviations

EA:

Empirical adaptationism

MA:

Methodological adaptationism

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Acknowledgments

I have benefitted greatly from comments from, and discussions with, Hanne Andersen, Sabina Leonelli, Arnon Levy, William Bechtel, Fridolin Gross, Samuel Schindler, Maureen O’Malley, and four anonymous reviewers. I would like to thank Peter Madsen, Malcolm Clarke, Paulien Hogeweg, and Uri Alon for inspiration and guidance through their research. This research was undertaken as part of the project Philosophy of Contemporary Science in Practice, funded by the Danish Research Council for Independent Research/Humanities.

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    Sara Green

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Green, S. A Philosophical Evaluation of Adaptationism as a Heuristic Strategy. Acta Biotheor 62, 479–498 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-014-9232-x

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