Chance and Explanation in Evolutionary Biology
Filed under: Chance, Drift, History of science, Phil of sci
The page on this site at Philosophy > Chance and Explanation has been updated with the following:
- A brief essay describing my work in history and philosophy of science concerning chance and explanation in evolutionary biology.
- My PhD thesis. The abstract: The central claim for which I argue in this dissertation is that there are important phenomena that occur by random drift that evolutionary biologists explain using a strategy I term “process explanation.” This claim puts me at odds with an influential view about the nature of explanation that I term “Hempelianism.” Hempelianism is the view that the scientific explanation of a particular event E requires (a) showing that E was to be expected, or indicating the degree to which it would have been rational to expect E’s occurrence; and (b) laws of nature. My central claim entails that both (a) and (b) are false. A process explanation consists of a narrative describing events causally relevant to the event to be explained. These narratives need not contain laws, show that the event to explained ought to have been expected, or indicate the degree to which it would have been rational to expect the event. My position about random drift also puts me at odds with evolutionists who, influenced by Hempelianism, claim that only natural selection can explain evolution. In my argument, I articulate the strategy of process explanation and defend it against Hempelian critics; describe a mechanism of random drift known as “indiscriminate sampling;” and describe process explanations of phenomena of drift that occur by indiscriminate sampling.
The Nastiness of the TeX on OSX mailing list
Following the TeX on OSX mailing list, I came across a lament from one of the list’s contributors.
This list is pretty nasty: You post a problem in the hope that no one will respond and you will thus have the best possible excuse for shelving it. Then people start giving you ways to solve your problem and, left without any more excuse, you got to get to work.
Cruel indeed.
BibTeX at the Darwin Manuscripts Project and BHL
Poking around the Biodiversity Heritage Library Tools page, I came across this question from the FAQ:
Question: What is the BibTex format that I see as a download option?
BibTex (http://www.bibtex.org/) is a common format for citations/references and is supported by all the major software vendors (EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero, Biblio). This functionality that lets a user view & export a BibTex file for any title, including its items, from the bibliography page, as in this example:
http://beta.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/1102
BHL is also going to make this format available for download alongside our custom data exports, such that users can download a BibTex file
that contains 1) all the *titles* in BHL including links to each, and 2) all the *items* in BHL (each volume) along with links. We need this export to move title-level metadata from the BHL portal to the article repository, so thought we might as well make the file available for others to use.
In effect, this would put BHL titles & volumes in a format easily understood by existing reference management applications.
When deciding whether our big database of works about evolution at the Darwin Manuscripts Project would use Endnote or BibTeX managed by way of BibDesk, I opted for BibTeX—a smart decision, if I do say so myself. It’s served us well in the many years that we’ve been using it, and it looks like it will continue to be useful. Nelson Beebe is developing (or has completed development) on some scripts to represent BibTeX databases in my SQL tables. He provides some useful links to related software tools which are needed as adjuncts to his scripts. In a paper in TUG (forthcoming? in vol 30, issue 1, Nov 2009), he explains a little bit about BibTeX, relational databases, and what’s involved in representing a .bib file as a relational database.
If anyone out there’s had experience creating relational databases from .bib files, feel free to comment on this post, or to let me know how I can contact you to ask questions and listen to any tips, warnings, etc. you might have.
WHOI Top Stories- Sand, Sun, Waves ... and Bacteria?Every year bacteria close beaches nationwide. One student wants to know why.Elizabeth Halliday spent her summer at the beach, but she wasn't swimming or sunbathing. Instead, the MIT/WHOI Joint Program student traveled to Provincetown three times per week to collect samples of sand and water in order to study the source of bacteria that can lead to perio […]
- Sand, Sun, Waves ... and Bacteria?