parsimony/biology

[Zden�k Sk�la]

>If we take Skála's statement at face value, then the testing of all
>explanatory hypotheses in all fields of inquiry are impossible.
Not exactly - what I have said apply to the historical data, where gathering
new independent evidence is by definition impossible. See, for example, the
current discussion in the community ecology about the possibility of
inferring competition processes from the observed species distribution
pattern. The prevailing meaning is that (1) it is impossible even if
observing the species pattern as a time series, (2) manipulative experiment
and/or laboratory data are necessary to at least limit the number of
possible models. Our phylogeny reconstruction discussion is rather similar
process-from-pattern inference problem.


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