On the dangers of making scientific models ontologically independent: Taking Richard Levins' warnings seriously

Biology and Philosophy

Volumn 21, Issue 5, 2006, Pages 703-724

  Winther, Rasmus Grønfeldt ^a  

^a UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO   (Mexico)

Author keywords

Dialectics; Ecology; Evolutionary genetics; Modeling; Models; Ontological assumptions; Ontology; Richard Levins; Theory

Indexed keywords

ADVOCACY; ECOLOGICAL MODELING; ECOLOGICAL THEORY; EVOLUTIONARY THEORY; PHILOSOPHY;

EID: 33847240884     PISSN: 01693867     EISSN: 15728404     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-006-9053-7     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Cartwright N (1983) How the laws of physics lie. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
2. Cartwright N (1989) Nature's capacities and their measurement. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
3. Cartwright N (1999) The dappled world. A study of the boundaries of science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
4. Clapin H (ed.) (2002) Philosophy of mental representation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
5. Dewey J (1929/1958) Experience and nature. Dover Publications, Inc, New York
6. Dewey J (1938) Logic. The theory of inquiry. Henry Holt and Co, New York
7. Dugatkin LA, Reeve HA (1994) Behavioral ecology and levels of selection: dissolving the group selection controversy. In: Slater PJB et al (eds) Advances in the study of behavior, vol 23. Academic Press, New York, pp 101-133
8. Feldman MW, Lewontin RC (1975) The heritability hang-up. Science 190:1163-1168
9. Frank S (1997) Cytoplasmic incompatibility and population structure. J Theor Biol 184:327-330
10. Frank S (1998) Foundations of social evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton
11. Goodnight CJ, Wade MJ (2000) The ongoing synthesis: A reply to Coyne, Barton, and Turelli. Evolution 54:317-324
12. Hacking I (2002) Historical ontology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA
13. Jones M (2005) Idealization and abstraction: A framework. In: Jones M, Cartwright N (eds) Idealization XII: Correcting the model. Idealization and abstraction in the sciences (Poznan studies in the philosophy of the sciences and the humanities), vol 86. Rodopi, Amsterdam/New York, pp 173-217
14. Kerr B, Godfrey-Smith P (2002) Individualist and multi-level perspectives on selection in structured populations. Biol Philos 17:477-517
15. Kuhn T (1970) The structure of scientific revolutions, 2nd edn. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
16. Levins R (1966) The strategy of model building in population biology. Am Sci 54:421-431
17. Levins R (1968). Evolution in changing environments. Some theoretical explorations. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
18. Levins R (2005) Living the 11th thesis, paper presented at the meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, Guelph, Canada
19. Levins R (2006) Strategies of abstraction (this issue)
20. Levins R, Lewontin RC (1985) The dialectical biologist. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
21. Lewontin RC (1974) The genetic basis of evolutionary change. Columbia University Press, New York
22. Lewontin RC, Kojima K (1960) The evolutionary dynamics of complex polymorphisms. Evolution 14:458-472
23. Lewontin RC, White MJD (1960) Interaction between inversion polymorphisms of two chromosome pairs in the Grasshopper, Moraba scurra. Evolution 14:116-129
24. Lloyd EA (2005) The case of the female orgasm. Bias in the science of evolution. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
25. Longino H (1993) Subjects, power, and knowledge: Description and prescription in feminist philosophies of science. In: Alcoff L, Potter E (eds) Feminist epistemologies. Routledge, London, pp 101-120
26. Longino H (2002) The fate of knowledge. Princeton University Press, Princeton
27. Neyman J, Park T, Scott EL (1956) Struggle for existence. The Tribolium model: Biological and statistical aspects. In: Neyman J (ed.) Proceedings of the third berkeley symposium on mathematical statistics and probability, vol 4. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 41-79
28. Odenbaugh J (2007) Idealized, inaccurate, and successful: A pragmatic approach to evaluating models in theoretical ecology. Biol Philos (forthcoming)
29. Ollman B (2003) Dance of the dialectic. Steps in Marx's method. University of Illinois Press, Champaign, IL
30. Oyama S (1985) The ontogeny of information. Developmental systems and evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK Reprinted by Duke University Press, 2000
31. Smith BC (1996) On the origin of objects. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
32. Sterelny K (1996) The return of the group. Philos Sci 63:562-584
33. Tucker RC (1978) The Marx-Engels reader, 2nd edn. WW Norton & Co, New York
34. Turelli M (1994) Evolution of incompatibility-inducing microbes and their hosts. Evolution 48:1500-1513
35. Wade MJ (1992) Sewall Wright: Gene interaction and the Shifting Balance Theory. In: Futuyma D, Antonovics J (eds) Oxford surveys in evolutionary biology, vol 8. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp 35-62
36. Weisberg M (2003) When less is more: Tradeoffs and idealization in model building. Doctoral Dissertation, Stanford University
37. Weisberg M (2006) Robustness analysis. Philosophy of Science 73(5)
38. Williams GC (1966) Adaptation and natural selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
39. Wilson RA (2003) Pluralism, entwinement, and the levels of selection. Philos Sci 70:531-552
40. Wimsatt WC (1980) Reductionistic research strategies and their biases in the units of selection controversy. In: Nickles T (ed.) Scientific discoveries: Case studies. Reidel, Dordrecht, Netherlands, pp 213-259
41. Wimsatt WC (1981) Robustness, reliability and overdetermination. In: Brewer T, Collins B (eds) Scientific inquiry and the social sciences. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp 124-163
42. Wimsatt WC (1986) Forms of aggregativity. In: Donogan A, Perovich N Jr, Wedin M (eds) Human nature and natural knowledge. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Netherlands, pp 259-291
43. Wimsatt WC (1987) False models as means to truer theory. In: Nitecki MH, Hoffman A (eds) Neutral models in biology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp 23-55
44. Winther RG (2006) Fisherian and Wrightian perspectives in evolutionary genetics and model-mediated imposition of theoretical assumptions. J Theor Biol 240:218-232
45. Wright S (1959) Physiological genetics, ecology of populations, and natural selection. Perspect Biol Med 3:107-151
46. Wright S (1969) Evolution and the genetics of populations, vol 2. The theory of gene frequencies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL