Elliott Sober

From the fact that E is evidence for T and the fact that T entails M, it doesn't follow that E is…

— Elliott Sober

Evolutionary game theory was originally developed as an alternative to the hypothesis of group selection; now it is clear that game theory…

— Elliott Sober

Earlier attempts to show that simpler theories always have higher prior probabilities have failed, but there is a restricted circumstance in which…

— Elliott Sober

"Methodological naturalism" and "metaphysical naturalism" are terms that often surface in the continuing battle between evolutionary biology and creationism/intelligent design. The methodological…

— Elliott Sober

The big picture, I think, is that common ancestry is evidentially prior to natural selection in Darwin's theory and in contemporary evolutionary…

— Elliott Sober

This is not to deny that there are versions of theism that do conflict with evolutionary biology. Young Earth Creationism is an…

— Elliott Sober

Some philosophical arguments (e.g., in connection with the mind/body problem) look pretty good, while others (e.g., those that criticize moral realism) do…

— Elliott Sober

I have spent a lot of time arguing that the theory of group selection is not the stupid, pernicious doctrine that many…

— Elliott Sober

Deism is compatible with evolutionary theory.

— Elliott Sober

"Simpler is always better" is an overstatement.

— Elliott Sober

Group selection and individual selection are just two of the selection processes that have played important roles in evolution. There also is…

— Elliott Sober

Instead of thinking of the question of race genealogically, and leaving it open whether vernacular races are genealogical units, the interest in…

— Elliott Sober

If the organisms in a species now have trait T, and this trait now helps those organisms to survive and reproduce because…

— Elliott Sober

Another way to test hypotheses about adaptation is to consider trait variation across a group of species instead of focusing on the…

— Elliott Sober

Evolutionary theory, properly understood, does not conflict with the idea that God occasionally intervenes in nature - for example, by once or…

— Elliott Sober

I don't endorse deism or interventionist theism. My point is just that evolutionary biology is logically compatible with the former and with…

— Elliott Sober

Evolutionary biologists often appeal to parsimony when they seek to explain why organisms "match" with respect to a given trait. For example,…

— Elliott Sober

The upshot is that most philosophers of biology now hold that biological properties supervene on physical properties (where supervenience is taken to…

— Elliott Sober

Just as thought experiments can't show that vitalism is true (or that it is false), they also can't show that dualism is…

— Elliott Sober

It is an interesting fact about model selection that the evidence at hand can indicate that a model known to be false…

— Elliott Sober

It can be a necessary conceptual truth that pains are painful without this ruling out the physicalist thesis that immaterial minds are…

— Elliott Sober

Darwin repeatedly used the hypothesis of common ancestry as a platform on which to build his various ideas about testing hypotheses concerning…

— Elliott Sober

When one theory is simpler than its competitor, this fact is relevant to saying what the world is like.

— Elliott Sober

I think that the existence of Beethoven is remarkable, but I do not bristle at the suggestion that this event had a…

— Elliott Sober

One influential philosophical position about the use of probability in science holds that probabilities are objective only if they are based on…

— Elliott Sober