APS Box — Selection Is Not the Whole of Evolution

Natural selection is an important component of evolutionary explanation.

It is not the whole of evolution.

Selection can only operate when continuity is already being maintained through inheritance and development. Equally, evolutionary outcomes are shaped by variation, developmental organisation, ecological interactions, constraints, niche construction, and historical contingencies.

APS therefore rejects selection-centred accounts that attempt to reduce evolutionary explanation to a single process.

Evolution is a continuity architecture composed of multiple interacting processes.

Selection influences which forms of organisation contribute to future continuity, but it does not explain continuity by itself.

Evolution is broader than selection.