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SUMMARY:Population thinking\, statistical autonomy\, and Biology's First L
 aw - Joeri Witteveen (Department of History and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20110316T130000Z
DTEND:20110316T140000Z
UID:TALK29883@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:22487
DESCRIPTION:Over fifty years ago\, the influential evolutionary biologist 
 Ernst Mayr added the notion of 'population thinking' to the vocabulary of 
 evolutionary \nbiologists and philosophers of biology. This term has becom
 e widely used\, and is supposed to mark a deep innovation in 'thinking' th
 at lies at the heart of Darwinism. However\, Mayr himself was ambiguous ab
 out what population thinking consists in. Elliot Sober is often regarded a
 s having cleared up much of the confusion (Sober 1980). He gave an explica
 tion of \npopulation thinking that forms the backdrop for current philosop
 hical debates.\n\nSober's approach was inspired by Ian Hacking's notion of
  the 'autonomy of the statistical law' (Hacking 1983\, 1990). I will argue
  that Sober's application of Hacking's idea to explicate population thinki
 ng is flawed. However\, there is a different was to employ Hacking's idea 
 to characterize population thinking\, which I will develop. My proposal fo
 r 'how to think \nabout population thinking' shares certain structural fea
 tures with a thesis about Biology's First Law\, developed recently by Robe
 rt Brandon and Dan McShea (Brandon 2006\, McShea & Brandon 2010). It also 
 differs from that thesis in ways that may have consequences for related to
 pical issues in the philosophy of biology.\n\nNo paper will be circulated 
 for this talk. Instead\, I will give a short presentation and provide a ha
 ndout. No previous knowledge of this topic will be assumed.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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