Natural Selection and Multi-Level Causation

Abstract

In this paper, using a multilevel approach, we defend the positive role of natural selection in the generation of organismal form. Despite the currently widespread opinion that natural selection only plays a negative role in the evolution of form, we argue, in contrast, that the Darwinian factor is a crucial (but not exclusive) factor in morphological organization. Analyzing some classic arguments, we propose incorporating the notion of 'downward causation' into the concept of 'natural selection.' In our opinion, this kind of causation is fundamental to the operation of selection as a creative evolutionary process. KEYWORDS Downward causation • Levels of hierarchical organization • Natural selection • Positive view Whatever the cause may be of each slight difference in the offspring from their parents […] it is the steady accumulation, through natural selection, of such differences when beneficial to the individual, that gives rise to all the more important modifications of structure, by which the innumerable beings on the face of this earth are enabled to struggle with each other, and the best adapted to survive.-Darwin (1859, 170) Novelties come from previously unseen association of old material. To create is to recombine.-Jacob (1977, 1163)