John Edser  wrote or quoted:

> Multi-level selection 
> Sean Rice 
> Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology 
> Yale University :
> 
> http://pantheon.yale.edu/~sean/group.html

Rice says (not very coherently, perhaps):

``I suggest that a useful test of whether selection is acting at some 
  level is to ask the following question: 

  In order for selection to act, is it necessary and sufficient for there 
  to be multiple (>1) units at that level and for there to be variation 
  between these? 

  If the answer to this question is "yes", then we say that selection is 
  acting at the level under consideration.''

Note that many say that selection should represent a choice between 
alternatives *on the basis of the charcteristics of the items in question*.

E.g. see:

``In their general description of selection, the authors define it as 
  ?repeated cycles of replication, variation, and environmental 
  interaction so structured that environmental interaction causes 
  replication to be differential.? The standard interpretation of the 
  word ?differential? is that in each cycle, multiple replicators differ 
  in the extent to which they replicate.''

 - http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Hull/Commentators/.Pepper.html

The issue boils down to whether selections can be made while
blindfolded.

On reflection, I think I'm with Rice's "ultra-broad" definition on
the issue - selections made while blindfolded are *still* selections.

I believe I'm rather going against the most common usage here,
though.

In particular, fans of genetic drift may not approve - however - since 
such terminology results in drift being classified as a selective
process - and I suspect they will find such usage contrary to
common usage in their particular area - i.e. the selection vs
drift debate becomes suddenly becomes rather ill-defined.

What about the issue of whether any variation is necessary?

I suspect this issue can be sidestepped on the grounds that it
isn't very relevant to biology: in nature, organisms *must*
vary a bit - since they must be in different physical locations.

I note that lots of dictionaries seem to mis-define the term
"selection" rather badly.  In particular, selection in biology
is *not*:

"a natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best
adapted to their environment"

....or anything remotely like it :-(
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