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The wrong equations: a reply to Gildenhuys

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Abstract

Glymour (Philos Sci 73:369–389, 2006) claims that classical population genetic models can reliably predict short and medium run population dynamics only given information about future fitnesses those models cannot themselves predict, and that in consequence the causal, ecological models which can predict future fitnesses afford a more foundational description of natural selection than do population genetic models. This paper defends the first claim from objections offered by Gildenhuys (Biol Philos, 2011).

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Notes

  1. There, and here, ‘population genetics’ is meant to include finite Markov chain models, diffusion approximations to them, and the algebraic models derived from them, though the problems at issue are faced broadly by any model in which fitnesses are assumed to be governed by a stationary stochastic process.

  2. See Marshall et al. (2001) for discussions and simulation results.

References

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  • Glymour B (2006) Wayward modeling: population genetics and natural selection. Philos Sci 73:369–389

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  • Marshall AW, Meza JC, Olkin I (2001) Can data recognize its parent distribution? J Comput Graph Stat 10:555–580

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  • Turelli M, Schemske D, Bierzychudek P (2001) Stable two-allele polymorphisms maintained by fluctuating fitnesses and seed banks: protecting the blues in Linanthus Parryae. Evolution 55:1283–1298

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66503, USA

    Bruce Glymour

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  1. Bruce Glymour
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Correspondence to Bruce Glymour.

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Glymour, B. The wrong equations: a reply to Gildenhuys. Biol Philos 28, 675–681 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-013-9362-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-013-9362-6

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