Adaptationist Explanations in Biology: A Case Study

生物学中的适应论解释：案例研究

• 批准号: 8708295
• 负责人: Elisabeth Lloyd
• 金额: $ 3万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1987
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1987-07-15 至 1988-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8708295&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Adaptationist; Explanations; Biology; Case; Study

Science is a social phenomena, i.e. it is done by women and men who come to their subjects with prior scientific and social commitments. Dr. Lloyd, with this grant, will be studying the affects of these prior commitments on the development of scientific theories. Her preliminary study shows that their impacts can best be seen in the gaps which necessarily exist between theoretical explanations and the available evidence. Given that there frequently is not enough evidence to firmly ground a theoretical explanation, a scientist brings to the problem both prior scientific beliefs and an inclination which has been cultivated in the society in which the science is developed for one kind of explanation over another. An example of such a development is the field of eugenics. Scientists took the available evidence from genetics and assimilated it with the racial and cultural biases which were cultivated in late 19th and early 20th century society and developed a theory for the "purification" and perfection of the human race. While consequences are not normally as extreme as in the case of eugenics, these factors clearly have an effect to a greater or lesser degree throughout science. Dr. Lloyd is examining the impact of the prior commitments of scientists in the development of their scientific explanations in evolutionary biology. The theoretical commitment which she is examining is that of "adaptationist" explanations. "Adaptive" stories in which a particular trait or property is assumed to have resulted from the direct operation of natural selection are the most prominent sort of evolutionary explanations. The traits themselves are seen as adaptations and the explanatory game is to provide a description of the environment and lifestyle of the organism which reveal how the possession of the trait would have contributed to the reproductive success of its owner. There can be a number of rational sounding adaptive explanations developed to explain a particular trait. Evidence is rarely sufficient to be determinative in such a situation. It is in such a situation that social orientations, biases if you will, lead scientists to prefer one explanation over another. In the case which Dr. Lloyd is studying, the unique aspects of female sexuality in humans, both male scientists and their feminist critics have used differing adaptive arguments for their respective positions. Dr. Lloyd will analyze these explanations in the context of a more general discussion of the use and abuse of adaptive explanations in evolutionary biology. Her study promises to be of great interest not only for the philosophy of science, but also for evolutionary biology and the social sciences.

科学是一种社会现象，也就是说，它是由那些带着先前的科学和社会承诺来到他们的主题的女性和男性完成的。劳埃德博士将利用这笔拨款，研究这些先前承诺对科学理论发展的影响。她的初步研究表明，它们的影响最能从理论解释和现有证据之间必然存在的差距中看出。考虑到经常没有足够的证据来坚定地支持一种理论解释，科学家既带来了先前的科学信念，也带来了一种在科学发展为一种解释而不是另一种解释的社会中培养起来的倾向。优生学领域就是这种发展的一个例子。科学家从遗传学中获取了可用的证据，并将其与19世纪末20世纪初社会中滋生的种族和文化偏见同化，开发了一种关于人类“纯净”和完美的理论。虽然结果通常不像优生学那样极端，但这些因素显然在整个科学中或多或少地产生了影响。劳埃德博士正在研究科学家在制定进化生物学科学解释过程中先前承诺的影响。她正在审视的理论承诺是“适应主义”解释。“适应性”故事是最突出的一种进化论解释，在这些故事中，一种特定的特征或属性被认为是自然选择的直接操作造成的。这些特征本身被视为适应，解释游戏是为了提供对有机体的环境和生活方式的描述，揭示拥有这些特征将如何有助于其所有者的繁殖成功。可以有许多听起来合理的适应性解释来解释一种特殊的特征。在这种情况下，证据很少足以起决定性作用。正是在这种情况下，社会取向，如果你愿意的话，偏见，导致科学家倾向于一种解释而不是另一种解释。在劳埃德博士正在研究的人类女性性行为的独特方面的案例中，男性科学家和他们的女权主义批评者都为自己的立场使用了不同的适应性论点。劳埃德博士将在对进化生物学中适应性解释的使用和滥用进行更广泛的讨论的背景下，对这些解释进行分析。她的研究不仅对科学哲学，而且对进化生物学和社会科学都有很大的兴趣。