Cladistic hypotheses

[J. Kirk Fitzhugh]

At 01:17 PM 11/23/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>This is basically a semantic problem, but I tend to agree with the
>reviewer.  A cladogram is produced by an algorithm which analyses
>observational data which is input to it and produces the most
>parsimonious solution it can find, i.e., it's a computer program which
>gives you a solution from the data you give to it.  Interpretation of
>the solution is up to the observer, including any hypotheses made based
>on the solution.  So I agree with Barry, and to lesser extent with Karl,
>although I think you have to make too many assumptions to consider a
>cladogram to be a hypothesis per se.  Neither data, nor data analysis,
>is a hypothesis.

This is not a matter of semantics, and is not a matter blind acceptance of
some diagram produced by a computer.  The matter here, contrary to the
reviewer, is one of producing hypotheses that might provide causal
understanding of observed effects.  In what way does a computer "analyze"
data, and what does it mean to have a "solution?"  One cannot interpret a
solution unless they know the intent of making the inference in the first
place as the means to deal with a perceived problem.  There are not "too
many assumptions to consider a cladogram a hypothesis."  One of the most
fundamental activities in all fields of science, and everyday life for that
matter, is that we hypothesize causes for observed effects.  Re "Neither
data, nor data analysis, is a hypothesis," data in the form of observation
statements are themselves hypotheses; an analysis by a computer is simply a
proxy for human inference that produces hypotheses.

Kirk

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J. Kirk Fitzhugh, Ph.D.
Curator of Polychaetes
Invertebrate Zoology Section
Research & Collections Branch
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
900 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90007

Phone:   213-763-3233
FAX:     213-746-2999
e-mail:  kfitzhug at nhm.org
http://www.nhm.org/research/annelida/staff.html
http://www.nhm.org/research/annelida/index.html
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