Can Evolutionarily Stable Strategies Exist?

Since its pioneering proposal by Maynard Smith and Price, the concept of an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) has been invaluable to evolutionary thinking. We identify several problems surrounding the concept of an ESS. Most importantly, we find a conceptual inconsistency in the term ESS itself.We make a plea for a conceptual refinement and a standard terminology.We suggest that, in place of ESS, the term evolutionarily stable population be adopted as defined in the paper