Implications of Use of Wright's F for the Role of Probability and Causation in Evolution.
Sewall Wright's FST is a mathematical test used to characterize differences between biological populations and identify causes of those differences. I discuss Cockerham and Weir's popular, empirically successful approach to statistical estimation of FST , arguing that their assumption that actual po...
| Publicado en: | Philosophy of Science Vol. 79; no. 5; pp. 596 - 609 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Cambridge University Press
Dec2012
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Sewall Wright's FST is a mathematical test used to characterize differences between biological populations and identify causes of those differences. I discuss Cockerham and Weir's popular, empirically successful approach to statistical estimation of FST , arguing that their assumption that actual populations are sampled from an infinite set of counterfactual populations (with a common ancestral population) supports a view of natural selection and genetic drift as distinct causes. I also argue that the way in which F-statistics and other statistical tests are applied to computer simulations in empirical research shows that selection and drift correspond to differences in objective, causal probabilities. |
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