Elliott Sober's distinction between 'natural state models' and population thinking shows that species-level relational properties are statistical aggregates, not causally productive universals.

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Causally productive universals(What Sober argues species-level properties are NOT): Things that are real and fundamental enough to directly cause effects in the world—the kind of thing that would make something true for everything it applies to.
Elliott Sober(as the originator of the model-to-target inference framework): A philosopher of science who studies how scientists figure out which explanations best match reality; he's particularly known for work on evolution and reasoning.
Natural state models(Contrasted with population thinking in evolutionary biology): A way of thinking about nature that focuses on individual things (like single organisms) and assumes they naturally stay the same unless something pushes them to change.
Population thinking(Boyd and Richerson's cultural evolutionary framework): An analytical approach that treats cultural change in terms of population-level dynamics, analogous to populational reasoning in evolutionary biology.

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