W.F.R. Weldon Changes His Mind
(2021) European Journal for Philosophy of Science — Vol. 11, n° 3, p. 61 (2021)
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- Abstract
- A recent debate over the causal foundations of evolutionary theory pits those who believe that natural selection causally explains long-term, adaptive population change against those who do not. In this paper, I argue that this debate – far from being an invention of several articles in 2002 – dates from our very first engagements with evolution as a quantified, statistical science. Further, when we analyze that history, we see that a pivotal figure in the early use of statistical methodology in evolutionary theory, W.F.R. Weldon (1860–1906), changes his mind about precisely the central claim at issue. I close by drawing some morals which I think the case can offer for the contemporary debate going forward.
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Citations
Pence, C. H. (2021). W.F.R. Weldon Changes His Mind. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 11(3), 61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-021-00384-3 (Original work published 2021)