From Richard Dawkins
David Sloan Wilson’s lifelong quest to redefine “group selection” in such a way as to sow maximum confusion – and even to confuse the normally wise and sensible Edward O. Wilson into joining him – is of no more scientific interest than semantic doubletalk ever is. What goes beyond semantics, however, is his statement (it is safe to assume that E. O. Wilson is blameless) that “Both Williams and Dawkins eventually acknowledged their error…” (3 November, p 42).
I cannot speak for George Williams but, as far as I am concerned, the statement is false: not a semantic confusion; not an exaggeration of a half-truth; not a distortion of a quarter-truth; but a total, unmitigated, barefaced lie. Like many scientists, I am delighted to acknowledge occasions when I have changed my mind, but this is not one of them.
D. S. Wilson should apologise. E. O. Wilson, being the gentleman he is, probably will.
David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson write:
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• Our comment about Dawkins specifically relates to the error of using the replicator concept – genes as the “fundamental” unit of selection – as an argument against group selection. Dawkins writes in The Extended Phenotype (p 115): “The point here is that we must be clear about the difference between those two distinct kinds of conceptual units, replicators and vehicles… The majority of models ordinarily called ‘group selection’… are implicitly treating groups as vehicles. The end result of the selection discussed is a change in gene frequencies, for example, an increase of ‘altruistic genes’ at the expense of ‘selfish genes’. It is still genes that are regarded as the replicators which actually survive (or fail to survive) as a consequence of the (vehicle) selection process.”
Another error is to suppose that within-group selection poses an insuperable problem for between-group selection. Dawkins has yet to acknowledge this error and we apologise if our article seemed to imply otherwise. Finally, Dawkins seems to think that one of us has somehow confused the other. We are united in our view about group selection, which we converged upon through separate lines of enquiry.
Oxford, UK
