Adaptationist explanations

Abstract

Adaptationist explanations in biology explain the presence of traits by hypothesizing that they are products of natural selection. Confirming adaptationist hypotheses is often a vexing problem, since evidence which might favor such hypotheses is often incomplete or inconclusive. Lacking what many scientists or philosophers would consider adequate evidence, biologists must resort to inference to the best explanation in selecting adaptationist hypotheses. In order to choose the best adaptationist hypothesis, biologists must use some criteria for evaluating hypotheses. Biologists may employ some of the frequently cited epistemic values (criteria of theory-choice) to evaluate adaptationist hypotheses. However, these values do not apply to adaptationist hypotheses in the same way they apply to other scientific hypotheses, because evolutionary biology is still an immature science, lacking widespread agreement on a number of important theoretical issues.