On Cognitive Luck: Externalism in an Evolutionary Frame

Moreover, when we look still more closely at the life bush, examining in detail the various lineages that form the littlest twigs (the species), we see the same pattern over again. The vast majority of individual animals and plants forming these various lineages didn't make it. The twigs are largely made of fuzz--of myriad little lives that broke off before reproduction. To a first approximation, all individual animals die before reproducing. A good indication of a species' mortality rate is how many more offspring than one per parent are conceived on average. Consider spiders, fish, and rabbits. And recall that Octavius was a common Roman name.