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Variational propensities: development and ultimate causes.

This paper applies philosophical tools from the causalists/statisticalists debate to the evo-devo idea of variational tendencies as propensities biasing phenotypic change. It contends that variational properties are present in a statistical sense in some population dynamics models, particularly quan...

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Published in:Synthese Vol. 203; no. 5; pp. 1 - 24
Main Author: Villegas, Cristina
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature May2024
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: May2024
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        atl: Variational propensities: development and ultimate causes.
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        au: Villegas, Cristina
        affil: https://ror.org/01c27hj86 Centro de Filosofia das Ciências, Departamento de História e Filosofia das Ciências, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal
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      keyword:
        Developmental bias
        Evo-devo
        Quantitative genetics
        Statisticalist debate
        Ultimate causes
      ab: This paper applies philosophical tools from the causalists/statisticalists debate to the evo-devo idea of variational tendencies as propensities biasing phenotypic change. It contends that variational properties are present in a statistical sense in some population dynamics models, particularly quantitative genetics ones, providing ultimate variational explanations. It further argues that these properties, contrary to some recent views, cannot be subsumed under natural selection. Finally, it advocates for a causalist interpretation of these explanations, where variational statistical properties indirectly refer to evo-devo’s variational propensities.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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