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Westram et al. (2022) analyse the concept of reproductive isolation (RI). Through an online survey they asked researchers: "In a sentence or two, what is reproductive isolation?" They identified three perspectives on RI: organismic, genetic and one that combines the other two. This provides an important motivation for formulating a general definition of RI. In this commentary, I discuss their approach to defining RI, and highlight certain features of it that are relevant for assessing its impact on speciation research.

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One of the most remarkable aspects of John Maynard Smith's work was the fact that he devoted time both to doing science and to reflecting philosophically upon its methods and concepts. In this paper I offer a philosophical analysis of Maynard Smith's approach to modelling phenotypic evolution in relation to three main themes. The first concerns the type of scientific understanding that ESS and optimality models give us. The second concerns the causal-historical aspect of stability analyses of adaptation. The third concerns the concept of evolutionary stability itself. Taken together, these three themes comprise what I call the natural philosophy of adaptation.