Reed E S
Acta Biotheor. 1978;27(3-4):201-35. doi: 10.1007/BF00115834.
The philosophical or metaphysical architecture of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is analyzed and discussed. It is argued that natural selection was for Darwin a paradigmatic case of a natural law of change -- an exemplar of what Ghiselin (1969) has called selective retention laws. These selective retention laws lie at the basis of Darwin's revolutionary world view. In this essay special attention is paid to the consequences for Darwin's concept of species of his selective retention laws. Although Darwin himself explicity supported a variety of nominalism, implicit in the theory of natural selection is a solution to the dispute between nominalism and realism. It is argued that, although implicit, this view plays a very important role in Darwin's theory of natural selection as the means for the origin of species. It is in the context of these selective retention laws and their philosophical implications that Darwin's method is appraised in the light of recent criticisms, and the conclusion drawn that he successfully treated some philosophical problems by approaching them through natural history. Following this an outline of natural selection theory is presented in which all these philosophical issues are highlighted.
对达尔文自然选择进化论的哲学或形而上学架构进行了分析与讨论。有人认为，对达尔文而言，自然选择是自然变化法则的一个典型案例——是吉泽林（1969）所称的选择性保留法则的一个范例。这些选择性保留法则构成了达尔文革命性世界观的基础。在本文中，特别关注了他的选择性保留法则对达尔文物种概念的影响。尽管达尔文本人明确支持多种唯名论，但自然选择理论中隐含着对唯名论与实在论之争的一种解决方案。有人认为，尽管这一观点是隐含的，但它在达尔文作为物种起源方式的自然选择理论中起着非常重要的作用。正是在这些选择性保留法则及其哲学含义的背景下，根据最近的批评对达尔文的方法进行了评估，并得出结论：他通过自然史来处理一些哲学问题，从而成功地解决了这些问题。在此之后，给出了自然选择理论的概述，其中突出了所有这些哲学问题。
