Silly Little Country

Nifty - A Clear Distinction

One of my favorite blogs to follow has long been Larry Moran's Sandwalk and here he does a nice job of helping me understand a distinction I have been struggling with.

It's a difference in worldviews. Pluralists tend to look at an evolutionary outcome and ask, "What mechanism of evolution caused this?" Adaptationists tend to look at the same outcome and ask, "How can this be explained by natural selection?" Adaptationists know about random genetic drift—they just don't think it's an important player when it comes to the parts of evolution that they're interested in. I think that's a bad assumption.

I think he has converted me.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 10:39 PM