Drift as a Force of Evolution: A Manipulationist Account

• Grant number: 17/24766-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Epistemology
• Principal Investigator: Lorenzo Baravalle
• Grantee: Lorenzo Baravalle
• Host Investigator: Davide Vecchi
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract

Can evolutionary theory be characterised as a "theory of forces", like Newtonian mechanics? One common criticism to this claim concerns the possibility to conceive genetic drift as a causal process endowed by a specific magnitude and direction. In the realisation of this project, I aim to offer an original response to this criticism by pointing out a connection between the notion of force and the notion of explanatory depth, as depicted in Hitchcock and Woodward's manipulationist account of causal explanation. My argument is that, since P1) force-explanations can be consistently reframed as deep explanations and vice versa, and P2) the notion of drift can be characterised in manipulationist terms as constitutively intervening in evolutionary deep explanations, then C) drift-explanations can be consistently reframed as force-explanations, and drift can be considered as a force of evolution. Insofar as my analysis applies also to other evolutionary factors - chiefly selection -, it offers an important support to the claim that evolutionary theory is a theory of forces.