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    Drift is a force, though less force-like than selection, ... — Carmelics
    Home/Causation
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    Drift is a force, though less force-like than selection, mutation, and migration

    Causation
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.A more elaborated account of what a force is (drawing on Bigelow et al. 1988) allows for forces with less specific directional information
      ?

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    • 2.Drift gives some directional information even if less specific than selection, mutation, and migration
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Forces require a determinate magnitude and direction at each instant, as established in classical mechanics (Newton, Bigelow et al. 1988).
      ?

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    • 2.Drift is constitutively indeterminate in both magnitude and direction, being defined precisely by the absence of systematic directional tendency.
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    • 3.An entity that lacks the defining quantitative properties of forces cannot be a force, even in a weakened or analogical sense.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Matthen and Ariew (2002) argue that population-level statistical outcomes like drift are not causes but mathematical summaries of individual causal histories.
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    • 2.If drift is merely a bookkeeping description of sampling variance rather than a productive cause, it cannot instantiate even a weakened force concept.
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    • 3.Admitting 'less force-like' forces collapses the force/description distinction that gives the forces framework its explanatory content.
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    Related

    A more elaborated account of what a force is (drawing on Bigelow et al. 1988) al...Admitting 'less force-like' forces collapses the force/description distinction t...An entity that lacks the defining quantitative properties of forces cannot be a ...Drift gives some directional information even if less specific than selection, m...
    +4 moreShow less
    Drift is constitutively indeterminate in both magnitude and direction, being def...Forces require a determinate magnitude and direction at each instant, as establi...If drift is merely a bookkeeping description of sampling variance rather than a ...Matthen and Ariew (2002) argue that population-level statistical outcomes like d...

    Similar

    Drift is an evolutionary force, but a force of a different color from ...90%Drift is not a distinct kind of force separate from selection87%Drift is a force83%Drift is not a force because drift is best interpreted as statistical ...78%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: genetic-drift
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    Brandon (2006), however, argues that “eliminating heterozygosity” is not sufficient to show that drift is directional, given that (as Stephens would readily acknowledge) if there were two alleles at a locus, beginning at equal frequencies, we could not predict which of the two alleles would go to fixation, only that one of them would; Brandon likens this to saying that “a 20-Newton force is acting on object A”, (2006: 325), which, he seems to imply, is not a directional claim. Moreover, he argue
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit