Repetitiveness and reversibility have long been considered as characteristic features of scientific knowledge. In theoretical population genetics, repetitiveness is illustrated by a number of genetic equilibria realized under specific conditions. Since these equilibria are maintained despite a continual flux of changes in the course of generations (reshuffling of genes, reproduction…), it can legitimately be said that population genetics reveals important properties of invariance through transformation. Time-reversibility is a more controversial subject. Here, the parallel with classical mechanics is much weaker. Time-reversibility is unquestionable in some stochastic models, but at the cost of a special, probabilistic concept of reversibility. But it does not seem to be a property of the most basic deterministic models describing the dynamics of evolutionary change at the level of populations and genes. Furthermore, various meanings of ‘reversibility’ are distinguished. In particular, time-reversibility should not be confused with retrodictability.
CITATION STYLE
Gayon, J., & Montévil, M. (2017). Repetition and Reversibility in Evolution: Theoretical Population Genetics. In Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (Vol. 326, pp. 275–314). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53725-2_13
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