From episodes to populations: evolutionary explanation requires a constructive epistemology
Dan Adler · 2026
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Description
Dan Adler and colleagues argue in a 2026 theory article that science splits into law-finding work and history-tracing work for a basic reason. Laws work when each event can be treated as separate, with past events leaving the rules unchanged. Evolution breaks that habit, since each step changes the next step.
A simple formal model shows how objects that merely persist longer can build population-level change without genes or copying. Placed beside law-based science, the model yields a four-part map of kinds of inquiry. The authors claim that history-based fields need their own building style of explanation. The piece speaks to readers who study how evolution should be explained.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Dan Adler |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57262 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |