The Explanatory Significance of Equilibrium

Skyrms教授的研究重点是评估平衡概念在生物学和决策科学中的解释意义。平衡的意义在于存在着潜在的动力。进化动力学和生态动力学在生物学中是相关的。各种各样的适应动力学和学习动力学在决策科学中是相关的。但是，当动力学被明确地建模时，就会出现新的问题，这些问题可能会对平衡的解释意义提出质疑。我们首先会问：“均衡是如何实现的？”也许动力学不会导致平衡，而是表现出周期性、准周期性或混沌行为。即使均衡仍然很重要，最合理的动态也可能导致对均衡概念的修正。这些考虑促使斯基姆斯教授重新思考均衡的解释意义问题。

Professor Skyrms is focussing his research on evaluating the explanatory significance of equilibrium concepts in biological and decision sciences. The significance of equilibrium depends on there being underlying dynamics. Evolutionary and ecological dynamics are relevant in biology. Various kinds of adaptational and learning dynamics are relevant in decision sciences. But when the dynamics is explicitly modeled, new questions arise which may call into question the explanatory significance of equilibrium. We are first led to ask: "how is equilibrium reached?" Perhaps the dynamics does not lead to an equilibrium, but rather exhibits periodic, quasi-periodic, or chaotic behavior. And even if equilibrium remains important, the most plausible dynamics may lead to a revision of the equilibrium concept. These considerations have led Professor Skyrms to rethink the question of the explanatory significance of equilibrium.