title: The Principle of Stasis: Why drift is not a Zero-Cause Law.
abstract: This paper analyses the structure of evolutionary theory as a quasi-Newtonian theory and the need to establish a Zero-Cause Law. Several authors have postulated that the special character of drift is because it is the default behaviour or Zero-Cause Law of evolutionary systems, where change and not stasis is the normal state of them. For these authors, drift would be a Zero-Cause Law, the default behaviour and therefore a constituent assumption impossible to change without changing the system. I defend that drift's causal and explanatory power prevents it from being considered as a Zero-Cause Law. Instead, I propose that the default behaviour of evolutionary systems is what I call the Principle of Stasis, which posits that an evolutionary system where there is no selection, drift, mutation, migration, etc., and therefore no difference-maker, will not undergo any change (it will remain in stasis).
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Genetics Group, Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, Universitat de València, C/Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46980, Paterna, Valencia, Spain; Departamento de Lógica y Filosofía de la Ciencia, Facultad de Filosofía y Ciencias de la Educación, Universitat de València, Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 30, 46010, Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: victor.luque@uv.es.
authors.forename: Victor J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Luque
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D008954:Models, Biological
keywords: Drift; Evolutionary forces; Newtonian analogy; Principle of Stasis; Zero-Cause Law