Using false models to elaborate constraints on processes: Blending inheritance in organic and cultural evolution

Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 2002 (S3):S12-S24 (2002)
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Abstract

Scientific models may be more useful for false assumptions they make than true ones when one is interested not in the fit of the model, but in the form of the residuals. Modeling Darwin’s “blending” theory of inheritance shows how it illuminates features of Mendelian theory. Insufficient understanding of it leads to incorrect moves in modeling population structure. But it may prove even more useful for organizing a theory of cultural evolution. Analysis of “blending” inheritance gives new tools for recognizing population structure for culture and for understanding differences between biological and cultural inheritance

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2009-01-28

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William C. Wimsatt
University of Minnesota

Citations of this work

Confirmation and explaining how possible.Patrick Forber - 2010 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (1):32-40.
Confirmation and explaining how possible.Patrick Forber - 2010 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (1):32-40.
Strategies of Model Building in Population Genetics.Anya Plutynski - 2006 - Philosophy of Science 73 (5):755-764.
The structure of idealization in biological theories: the case of the Wright-Fisher model.Xavier de Donato Rodríguez & Alfonso Arroyo Santos - 2012 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 43 (1):11-27.

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References found in this work

A Mathematical Theory of Communication.Claude Elwood Shannon - 1948 - Bell System Technical Journal 27 (April 1924):379–423.
Genes, memes, and cultural heredity.William C. Wimsatt - 1999 - Biology and Philosophy 14 (2):279-310.

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