Evolution and Constraints on Variation: Variant Specification and Range of Assessment.
There is still a great deal of debate over what counts as a constraint and about how to assess experimentally the relative importance of constraints and selection in evolutionary history. I will argue that the notion of a constraint on variation, and thus the selection-constraint distinction, depend...
| Publicado en: | Philosophy of Science Vol. 78; no. 5; pp. 739 - 752 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Cambridge University Press
Dec2011
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | There is still a great deal of debate over what counts as a constraint and about how to assess experimentally the relative importance of constraints and selection in evolutionary history. I will argue that the notion of a constraint on variation, and thus the selection-constraint distinction, depends on two specifications: (1) what counts as a variant--constraints limit or bias the production of what? and (2) range of assessment--over what range of times or conditions is the variation assessed? Specifications 1 and 2 help us to understand empirical work on the relative importance of constraint and selection in evolution. |
|---|