Darwinian Dynamics

Offering an alternative interpretation of evolution and fitness concepts, this book contends that evolution has no enduring products. Instead, it argues that what matters is the process of genetic change. The author considers the principles behind the hierarchically tested levels of organization that constitute life: genes, chromosomes, genomes, cells, multicellular organisms, and societies. The text goes on to explain how cooperation and conflict in a multilevel setting leads to new levels of fitness. He constructs a model of fitness drawing on recent developments in ecology and multi-level selection theory and on new explanations of the origin of life.