Assuming every observed feature exists because it is optimal, rather than as a by-product or an accident of history.
Gould and Lewontin's 1979 spandrels paper, taking the name from Voltaire's Dr Pangloss. The chin, they argued, is a by-product of jaw development rather than an adaptation for anything.
In practice
- An organ that appears exquisitely adapted may be a by-product of the developmental process that produced its neighbour.
- A firm's decision structure that looks perfectly designed for its market is often a residue of a merger nobody would repeat.
- Subject
- Science & Epistemology
- Essay
- The ways evidence misleads