Higher-Order Cumulative Selection and Directionality in Evolution

At the outset this work seeks to show that cumulative selection – according to Modern Synthesis and its naturalistic extensions the principal driver of evolutionary directionality – is not as “simple” as claimed by neo-Darwinist authors. To realize this it suffices to remember that many essential factors intervening in a given cumulative selection process are in turn issued from cumulative selection and so on. So hyper-complex higher-order cumulative selection networks are hidden behind apparently “simple” cumulative selection processes. Here the following question arises: in order for a considered cumulative selection process to merely operate should we not presuppose that the hyper-complex higher-order cumulative selection network behind it must be adequately preconfigured? Independently of the classical teleology issue which concerns simplifying the need for evolution of pre-given goals this work defends the thesis that evolutionary directionality indeed requires such a preconfiguration. Even if evolution might unfold in a “teleology-free” way the need for Intelligent Design reappears at this more fundamental level to be called “active teleonomy.”