On Reconciling Atheism and Meaning in the Universe

[LTX]

117. The short answer is yes. Prof. Mayr's

initial discussions gave every appearance of focusing on outcome, not process (or discrete operative elements in the process). In the sense that natural selection has multiple possible outcomes with varying degrees of probability, this is pretty far from synonymous with a stochastic process.

But there was a readable evolution in his writings, where the process itself is broken down into elements, his "stochastic perturbations", and the uncertainty of outcome backed up into uncertainty in process.

Since that time the discussion has focused more on the existence or non-existence of conceptual distinctions between natural selection and genetic drift. Genetic drift is generally perceived as random (although it is as much a process as natural selection), and the modeling of drift has progressed quite a bit. Conceptually at least, it is suggested that elements of natural selection could yield to the same modeling.