title: On the unfitness of natural selection to explain sexual reproduction, and the difficulties that remain.
abstract: In its essence, the explanatory potential of the theory of natural selection is based on the iterative process of random production and variation, and subsequent non-random, directive selection. It is shown that within this explanatory framework, there is no place for the explanation of sexual reproduction. Thus in Darwinistic literature, sexual reproduction - one of nature's most salient characteristics - is often either assumed or ignored, but not explained. This fundamental and challenging gap within a complete naturalistic understanding of living beings calls for the need of a cybernetic account for sexual reproduction, meaning an understanding of the dynamic and creative potential of living beings to continuously and autonomously produce new organisms with unique and specific constellations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Joris
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Rossum
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003491:Cybernetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype; D012098:Reproduction / Q000502:physiology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012723:Sex