The Rise of Chance in Evolutionary Theory: A Pompous Parade of Arithmetic

ISBN-13: 9780323912914 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 192 str.

Charles Pence

Recenzje

".Charles Pence's excellent new book provides a rich and detailed history that carefully inspects the traditional account of biometrics, plotting the emergence of statistical thinking in evolutionary theory. The author argues that Darwin informally made room for chance by conceptualizing natural selection not as a law but as a tendency, but a tendency that constrained sources of chance that might otherwise affect evolutionary outcomes. For Pence there is a tension here, which prevented a full commitment to a probabilistic theory, due to the deterministic philosophies of science in which Darwin was schooled. Nonetheless, Darwin created" --The Quarterly Review of Biology

Spis treści

1. Chance governs the descent of a farthing: Charles Darwin 2. The wonderful form of cosmic order: Francis Galton 3. The only ultimate test of the theory of natural selection: The Early Years of Biometry 4. Here is the true gospel: Biometry After Mendelism 5. Reconciling the biometrical conclusions: Evolution from 1906 to 1918 6. What natural selection must be doing: R. A. Fisher's Early Synthesis 7. Conclusions, historiographical and philosophical Index