R.A. Fisher, indeterminism, and the fundamental theorem of natural selection

Abstract

This paper is about the relationship between R.A. Fisher’s fundamental theorem of natural selection (FTNS) and the two major pieces that Fisher wrote on indeterminism, “Indeterminism and Natural Selection” (1934) and Creative Aspects of Natural Law (1950). I argue that the FTNS presents a picture of natural selection that is interestingly different from what we find in these two indeterminism pieces, pace some recent work that advances the opposite conclusion. I also identify as the source of this difference both the mathematical form of the FTNS (i.e., a differential equation) and Fisher’s meta-scientific commitment to advancing “general” claims about evolution.