Beanbag Holobionts

Abstract

In this paper, I consider two arguments concerning the status of holobionts as evolutionary individuals—one rejects the thesis by privileging the “stability of lineages” (sensu Godfrey-Smith 2009) and the other supports the thesis by privileging the “stability of traits” (sensu Veigl et al. 2022). I argue that the tension between these two arguments arises from two fundamentally different accounts of natural selection. I suggest that each account of selection corresponds to a unique account of evolutionary individuality. This strategy entitles us to a modest pluralism: holobionts are evolutionary individuals on one account of selection but not on the other.