Is there more than one definition of natural selection?

After 300+ posts following Message 1 we failed to agree on the exact meaning or precise difinition of natural selection. I have been saying that NS is the differential reproductive success amongst invividuals of a population. This agrees with E. O. Wilson's defintion (from Sociobiology, 2000, p. 589):

quote:

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Natural selection: The differential contribution of offspring to the next generation by individuals of different genetic types but belonging to the same population.

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He does not mention sexual selection, mutation, gene flow, or drift in his definition; he only refers to the differential reproductive success amongst individuals in a population. Is there a cause/effect relationship within the context of NS that is not yet well understood? Do members of this forum think that natural selection is a cause, an effect, or both, as it associates with a microevolutionary event? It certainly does seem causal to me. So why do we still disagree on how to define NS?Does anyone have a better definion of NS than the one I provided?”HM

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