Evolution and the Levels of Selection

The definitive technical treatment of the multilevel selection problem — at what level does natural selection operate? Genes, organisms, groups, species? Okasha formalises what had been decades of often confused debate, using the mathematical framework of the Price equation to show when and how selection at different levels can be rigorously defined. Where Sober and Wilson opened the group selection debate with philosophical argument and biological evidence, Okasha provides the formal architecture. The book is demanding but extraordinarily clear for its level of technical ambition. Essential for anyone who wants to move beyond slogans ("selfish gene" versus "group selection") to understand what the actual structure of the problem is. Connects to every serious discussion of cooperation, altruism, and organisational evolution.