Convergence and parallelism in evolution: a neo-Gouldian account. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 63

Determining whether a homoplastic trait is the result of convergence or parallelism is central to many of the most important contemporary discussions in biology and phil-osophy: the relation between evolution and development, the importance of constraints on variation, and the role of contingency in evolution. In this article, I show that two recent attempts to draw a black-or-white distinction between convergence and parallel-ism fail, albeit for different reasons. Nevertheless, I argue that we should not be afraid of gray areas: a clarified version of S. J. Gould’s earlier account, based on a separation of underlying developmental mechanisms from the realized trait, still represents a usefu