Re: 2. Nested Verses Intersecting Sets of Fitness

in article grlbku$19te$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, John Edser at
edser@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 4/9/09 10:35 AM:

Nesting is a bit like pregnancy: either you are or you are not,
pregnant. IOW set nesting presents an out-of-fashion "black and white"
proposition.

Hi John,

As you will remember, this black-and-white position of your regarding
hierarchy was one of the issues on which we had to agree to disagree. You
define nestedness (hierarchy) as a black and white thing. In other words,
you choose to assume it is that way because in your philosophy of science
this is a necessary first step. I don't think that you claim it must be so
in nature. In fact, I think the data from natural systems overwhelmingly
suggest that absolute hierarchy is rare at best and that heterarchy (degrees
of hierarchy) is quite common. Without going into your reasons for
insisting that evolutionary theory assume that nestedness is a black and
white phenomenon, can you please explain how your approach to evolutionary
theory would handle heterarchical data? It seems to me that the critical
question for your approach to the theory is how robust the theory would be
to departures from the black and white assumption. Have you considered
this?

Please note that I have not asked you to explain or defend your reasoning
for choosing to assume that nestedness is black and white. It would help me
to understand your answer if you stick to the question I asked.

Thanks,

Guy


.

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