Guy Hoelzer wrote:
> in article c6lv3s$10h4$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org, Peter F. at
> effectivespamblock{at}ozemail.com.au wrote on 4/27/04 8:43 AM:
> 
> 
>>LETTERS TO NEWSLINE
>>
>>
>>>From Richard Dawkins:
>>
>>As usual, I read your Newsline with pleasure. The appended letter to the
>>Independent, however, is rubbish. It is not true to say that
"evolution by
>>natural selection is not simply about survival of the fittest individuals
>>but also about the survival of the fittest groups of individuals".
> 
> 
> Don't you love it when someone with a particularly narrow point of view, and
> one that is opposed by a substantial fraction of the scientific community at
> large, appoints themselves as the arbiter of "truth" for the
general public.
> 
He's right - in the sense that one should really add survival of the 
fittest genes, and species etc. etc, rather than implying that selection 
only occurs at the individual and group levels.

Personally, I wish we'd get beyond these disputes.  The theory was 
developed in the 70s, and there are a few systems in which group 
selection seems to operate.  Why don't we just use group selection when 
we need to, don't when we don't, and get on with more interesting 
things.  This whole argument is like discussing whether Luxembourg 
exists.  It does, but it can be safely ignored most of the time.

Bob

I hope any Luxembourgers will accept the spirit of my comments - I 
appreciate that they would have difficulty ignoring their nation.

-- 
Bob O'Hara

Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics
P.O. Box 4 (Yliopistonkatu 5)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Telephone: +358-9-191 23743
Mobile: +358 50 599 0540
Fax:  +358-9-191 22 779
WWW:  http://www.RNI.Helsinki.FI/~boh/
Journal of Negative Results - EEB: http://www.jnr-eeb.org
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