Explaining sex: contrast between social and sexual selection

Darwin's [The Descent of Man (2nd Edn.) (1871)] theory of sexual selection has been expanded into a system of interlocking hypotheses to explain many features of sexual reproduction. It focusses on mating success and relies on processes featuring bad genes, selfishness, competition, conflict, coercion, ownership and deceit. Logical flaws and an absence of factual support challenge the sexual-selection system. An alternative explanatory system, social selection, focusses on offspring delivery and relies on processes featuring negotiation, teamwork and division of labor. The sexual-selection system and the social-selection system differ in their world views of nature.