Abstract
Chance comes into play at many levels in the explanation of the evolutionary process. This paper examines the various senses this concept takes at different levels, including mutation, genetic drift, genetic revolutions, ecosystems and macroevolution. Three main concepts of chance are identified: luck, randomness and contingency relative to a given theoretical system.
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Acknowledgements
I thank Bernard Chevassus-au-Louis and Denis Couvet for their fruitful comments on the manuscript. I am indebted to Matthew Cobb for his helpful linguistic corrections.
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Gayon, J. (2012). Evolution and Chance. In: Bergandi, D. (eds) The Structural Links between Ecology, Evolution and Ethics. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 296. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5067-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5067-8_3
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