Barrett, Martin, Clatterbuck, Hayley, Goldsby, Michael, Helgeson, Casey 
ORCID: 0000-0001-5333-9954, McLoone, Brian, Pearce, Trevor, Sober, Elliott, Stern, Reuben and Weinberger, Naftali
(2012)
Puzzles for ZFEL, McShea and Brandon’s zero force evolutionary law.
Biology and Philosophy, 27 (5).
pp. 723-735.
ISSN 0169-3867
Abstract
In their 2010 book, Biology’s First Law, D. McShea and R. Brandon present a principle that they call “ZFEL,” the zero force evolutionary law. ZFEL says (roughly) that when there are no evolutionary forces acting on a population, the population’s complexity (i.e., how diverse its member organisms are) will increase. Here we develop criticisms of ZFEL and describe a different law of evolution; it says that diversity and complexity do not change when there are no evolutionary causes.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://link.springer.com/journal/10539 |
| Additional Information: | © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. |
| Divisions: | Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Feb 2014 14:54 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Oct 2025 02:45 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/55527 |
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