The structure of causal explanations in population biology
- Author
- Erik Weber (UGent) and Roxan Degeyter
- Organization
- Abstract
- The scope of this paper can be clarified by means of a well-known phenomenon that is usually called 'industrial melanism': the fact that the melanic form of the peppered moth became dominant in industrial areas in England in the second half of the nineteenth century. Such changes in relative phenotype frequencies are important explananda for population biologists. Apart from trying to explain such changes over time, population biologists also often try to explain differences between populations, e.g. why yellow shell colour is dominant in certain colonies of land snails and almost absent in other colonies. The causal explanations that are given to address such explananda are the objects of analysis in this paper. Our primary aim is to explicate their structure: we want to capture the typical ingredients of causal explanations in population biology, and their organisation. Based on this explication, we discuss how natural selection fits into recent mechanical philosophy of science, and engage in the debate on the nature of evolutionary theory.
- Keywords
- Applied Mathematics, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, General Environmental Science, Philosophy, General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, General Medicine, Causal explanation, Explication, Industrial melanism, Mechanisms, Natural selection, Population biology
Downloads
-
(...).pdf
- full text (Published version)
- |
- UGent only
- |
- |
- 676.03 KB
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8719967
- MLA
- Weber, Erik, and Roxan Degeyter. “The Structure of Causal Explanations in Population Biology.” ACTA BIOTHEORETICA, vol. 69, no. 3, 2021, pp. 449–76, doi:10.1007/s10441-020-09405-9.
- APA
- Weber, E., & Degeyter, R. (2021). The structure of causal explanations in population biology. ACTA BIOTHEORETICA, 69(3), 449–476. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-020-09405-9
- Chicago author-date
- Weber, Erik, and Roxan Degeyter. 2021. “The Structure of Causal Explanations in Population Biology.” ACTA BIOTHEORETICA 69 (3): 449–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-020-09405-9.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Weber, Erik, and Roxan Degeyter. 2021. “The Structure of Causal Explanations in Population Biology.” ACTA BIOTHEORETICA 69 (3): 449–476. doi:10.1007/s10441-020-09405-9.
- Vancouver
- 1.Weber E, Degeyter R. The structure of causal explanations in population biology. ACTA BIOTHEORETICA. 2021;69(3):449–76.
- IEEE
- [1]E. Weber and R. Degeyter, “The structure of causal explanations in population biology,” ACTA BIOTHEORETICA, vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 449–476, 2021.
@article{8719967,
abstract = {{The scope of this paper can be clarified by means of a well-known phenomenon that is usually called 'industrial melanism': the fact that the melanic form of the peppered moth became dominant in industrial areas in England in the second half of the nineteenth century. Such changes in relative phenotype frequencies are important explananda for population biologists. Apart from trying to explain such changes over time, population biologists also often try to explain differences between populations, e.g. why yellow shell colour is dominant in certain colonies of land snails and almost absent in other colonies. The causal explanations that are given to address such explananda are the objects of analysis in this paper. Our primary aim is to explicate their structure: we want to capture the typical ingredients of causal explanations in population biology, and their organisation. Based on this explication, we discuss how natural selection fits into recent mechanical philosophy of science, and engage in the debate on the nature of evolutionary theory.}},
author = {{Weber, Erik and Degeyter, Roxan}},
issn = {{0001-5342}},
journal = {{ACTA BIOTHEORETICA}},
keywords = {{Applied Mathematics,General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,Philosophy,General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,Causal explanation,Explication,Industrial melanism,Mechanisms,Natural selection,Population biology}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{449--476}},
title = {{The structure of causal explanations in population biology}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-020-09405-9}},
volume = {{69}},
year = {{2021}},
}
- Altmetric
- View in Altmetric
- Web of Science
- Times cited: