A mind is required in order to select. He did so, of course, because he arrived at his theory through studying the effects of selection as practiced by man in the breeding of domesticated animals and cultivated plants. Here the use of the word is entirely legitimate. The breeder works toward an objective. Man picks out the individuals he wishes to cross, choosing them by the characters he seeks to perpetuate or enhance.
Natural selection has no selector.
Artificial selection, practiced by breeders of agricultural plants and domesticated animals, has commonly been used as a model of the action of natural selection. For any given generation, natural selection is a consequence of the differences between individuals with respect to their capacity to produce progeny . . Artificial Selection, in contrast, is a purposeful process. Natural selection can and does take place in domesticated and laboratory organisms, and in mankind, under all sorts of natural and artificial conditions. Artificial selection is man-made, however.