Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T05:22:48.169Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Semantic Approach to the Structure of Population Genetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Elisabeth A. Lloyd
Elisabeth A. Lloyd*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Princeton University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A precise formulation of the structure of modern evolutionary theory has proved elusive. In this paper, I introduce and develop a formal approach to the structure of population genetics, evolutionary theory's most developed sub-theory. Under the semantic approach, used as a framework in this paper, presenting a theory consists in presenting a related family of models. I offer general guidelines and examples for the classification of population genetics models; the defining features of the models are taken to be their state spaces, parameters, and laws. The suggestions regarding the various aspects of the characterization of population genetics models provide an outline for further detailed research.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 1984 , pp. 242 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I wish to thank Bas van Fraassen, Richard Lewontin, David Hull, Lindley Darden, Mary Williams, Steven Orzack, and two anonymous referees for this journal for their questions, criticism, and suggestions.

References

Bailey, N. T. J. (1967), The Mathematical Approach to Biology and Medicine. London, New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Beatty, J. (1980), “Optimal-design Models and the Strategy of Model Building in Evolutionary Biology”, Philosophy of Science 47: 532–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatty, J. (1981), “What's Wrong with the Received View of Evolutionary Theory?”, PSA 1980: Vol. Two. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatty, J. (1982), “The Insights and Oversights of Molecular Genetics: the Place of the Evolutionary Perspective”, PSA 1982: Vol. One. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, D. (1975), “The T-locus of the Mouse”, Cell 6: 441–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruck, D. (1957), “Male segregation ratio advantage as a factor in maintaining lethal alleles in wild populations of house mice”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 43: 152–158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dobzhansky, T. (1970), Genetics of the Evolutionary Process. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kimura, M. and Ohta, T. (1971), Theoretical Aspects of Population Genetics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Hull, D. L. (1980), “Individuality and Selection”, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 311–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewontin, R. C. and Dunn, L. C. (1960), “The Evolutionary dynamics of a polymorphism in the house mouse”, Genetics 45: 701–722.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewontin, R. C. (1962), “Interdeme Selection controlling a polymorphism in the House Mouse”, The American Naturalist Vol. 46 No. 887: 65–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewontin, R. C. (1967), “The Principle of Historicity in Evolution”, in Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution, Moorehead, P. S. and Kaplan, M. M. (eds.). Philadelphia: Wistar Institute Press, pp. 81–88.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R. C. (1974), The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Levins, R. (1968), Evolution in Changing Environments. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maynard Smith, J. (1968), Mathematical Ideas in Biology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, E. (1967), “Evolutionary Challenges to the Mathematical Interpretation of Evolution”, in Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution, Moorehead, P. S. and Kaplan, M. M. (eds.). Philadelphia: Wistar Institute Press, pp. 47–54.Google Scholar
Moulines, C. U. (1975), “A Logical Reconstruction of Simple Equilibrium Thermodynamics”, Erkenntnis 9: 101–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sneed, J. (1971), The Logical Structure of Mathematical Physics. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sober, E. and Lewontin, R. C. (1982), “Artifact, Cause, and Genic Selection”, Philosophy of Science 49: 157–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starfield, A. M. et al. (1980), “An Exploratory Model of Impala Population Dynamics”, in Mathematical Modelling in Biology and Ecology, Vol. 33 of Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, Levin, S. (ed.). Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Stegmuller, W. (1976), The Structure and Dynamics of Theories. New York: Springer-Verlag,Google Scholar
Suppe, F. (1972), “What's Wrong with the Received View on the Structure of Scientific Theories?” Philosophy of Science 39: 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppe, F. (1973), “Theories, Their Formulations, and the Operational Imperative”, Synthese 25: 129–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppe, F. (1974), “Theories and Phenomena”, in Developments of the Methodology of Social Science, Leinfellner, W. and Kohler, E. (eds.). Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 45–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppe, F. (1974a), “Some Philosophical Problems in Biological Speciation and Taxonomy”, in Conceptual Basis of the Classification of Knowledge, Wojcieckowski, (ed.). Munich: Verlag Dokumentation, pp. 190–243.Google Scholar
Suppe, F. (1976), “Theoretical Laws”, in Formal Methods in the Methodology of Empirical Sciences, Przelecki, M., et al. (eds.). Dordrecht, Boston: Reidel, pp. 247–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppe, F. (ed.) (1977), The Structure of Scientific Theories (2nd ed.). Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Suppe, F. (1979), “Theory Structure”, in Current Research in Philosophy of Science, East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 317–338.Google Scholar
Suppes, P. (1957), Introduction to Logic. New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand and Co.Google Scholar
Suppes, P. (1961), “A Comparison of the Meaning and Use of Models in Mathematics and the Empirical Sciences”, in The Concept and the Role of the Model in Mathematics and Natural and Social Sciences, Freudenthal, H. (ed.). Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 163–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppes, P. (1962), “Models of Data”, in Logic, Methodology, and the Philosophy of Science. (Proceedings of the 1960 International Congress, Vol. 1), E. Nagel, P. Suppes, and A. Tarski (eds.). California: Stanford University Press, pp. 252–261.Google Scholar
Suppes, P. (1967), “What is a Scientific Theory?” in Philosophy of Science Today, Morgenbesser, S. (ed.). New York: Meridian Books.Google Scholar
Thompson, P. (1983), “The Structure of Evolutionary Theory: a Semantic Approach”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 14: 215–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. C. (1969), “Meaning Relations and Modalities”, Nous 3: 155–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. C. (1970), “On the Extension of Beth's Semantics of Physical Theories”, Philosophy of Science 37: 325–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. C. (1972), “A Formal Approach to the Philosophy of Science”, in Paradigms and Paradoxes, Colodny, R. (ed.). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, B. C. (1974), “The Labyrinth of Quantum Logic”, in Logical and Empirical Studies in Contemporary Physics, R. S. Cohen and M. Wartofsky (eds.). Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol XIII.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. C. (1980), The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. C. (forthcoming), “Aim and Structure of Scientific Theories”, in Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science.Google Scholar
Wade, M. J. (1976), “Group Selection among Laboratory populations of Tribolium”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA Vol. 73, No. 12: 4604–4607.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wade, M. J. (1977), “An Experimental Study of Group Selection”, Evolution 31: 134–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wade, M. J. (1978), “A Critical Review of the Models of Group Selection”, Quarterly Review of Biology 53: 101–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wessels, L. (1976), “Laws and Meaning Postulates (in van Fraassen's View of Theories)”, in PSA 1974, Cohen, R. S. et al. (eds.). Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 215–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimsatt, W. C. (1980), “Reductionist Research Strategies and their biases in the units of selection controversy”, in Scientific Discovery: Case Studies, Nickels, T. (ed.). Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 213–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar