The group selection debate and ALife - weak altruism, strong altruism, and inclusive fitness

Models of the evolution of social behaviour are often framed in terms of either multi-level selection or inclusive individual fitness theory. Although both of these descriptions correctly predict changes in gene frequency (where group fitness is defined as the average individual fitness of the group members), it is still a hotly contested issue as to which provides a faithful description of the underlying causal processes at work. Furthermore, the type of model analysis used reflects the philosophical bias of the author. It is important for Alife researchers to be aware of this issue when evaluating or presenting models of social evolution, for many authors simply claim as a matter of fact that their model works via multi-level or (inclusive) individual selection, without acknowledging the alternative perspective.