Thornhill R
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 87131, USA.
Ciba Found Symp. 1997;208:4-13; discussion 13-22. doi: 10.1002/9780470515372.ch2.
A Darwinian adaptation is an organism's feature that was functionally designed by the process of evolution by selection acting in nature in the past. Functional design rules out explanations of drift, incidental effect, phylogenetic legacy and mutation. Elucidation of the functional design of an adaptation entails an implicit reconstruction of the selection that made the adaptation. Darwinian adaptations and other individual traits may be currently adaptive, maladaptive or neutral. One relatively recent meaning of adaptation is inconsistent with the Darwinian conception of adaptation. The inconsistent meaning characterizes much research on humans and non-human species in behavioural ecology. Its focus is on equating Darwinian adaptation with current adaptiveness. Current adaptiveness is not an actual scientific prediction of a hypothesis about Darwinian adaptation. Some aspects of the discussion in the evolutionary literature surrounding the current adaptiveness view of adaptation are evaluated. Contrary to claims by some who advocate current adaptiveness, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness of humans and other organisms is scientifically knowable through discovery of the functional design of Darwinian adaptations.
达尔文式适应是指生物体的一种特征，它是过去自然界中通过选择的进化过程进行功能设计的结果。功能设计排除了对漂变、附带效应、系统发育遗留和突变的解释。对一种适应的功能设计进行阐释需要对产生该适应的选择进行隐含的重构。达尔文式适应和其他个体特征目前可能是适应性的、非适应性的或中性的。适应的一个相对较新的含义与达尔文式适应概念不一致。这种不一致的含义在行为生态学中关于人类和非人类物种的许多研究中都有体现。其重点是将达尔文式适应等同于当前的适应性。当前的适应性并非关于达尔文式适应的假设的实际科学预测。本文评估了进化文献中围绕适应的当前适应性观点的讨论的一些方面。与一些主张当前适应性的人的观点相反，通过发现达尔文式适应的功能设计，人类和其他生物体的进化适应环境在科学上是可知的。
