The Semantic Approach and its application to Evolutionary Theory

Abstract

The semantic view of theory structure, as developed by Suppes (1957,1967), Suppe (1974, 1976, 1977, 1988), and van Fraassen (1970, 1972, 1980), represents theories as classes of models or structures. These models are, on the version of the semantic approach used here, defined by specifying their laws, parameters, and variables. The semantic approach to theory structure is simply a method of formalizing the content of scientific theories.In a series of articles and a book, I have analyzed the structure of modern evolutionary theory using the semantic view as a framework (Lloyd 1984, 1986a, 1986b, 1987a, 1987b, 1988, forthcoming; cf. Thompson 1983, 1985, 1988). I shall briefly recap the analyses I have done, in order to demonstrate the range of problems accessible to the semantic view.First, I have used the semantic view to analyze the structure of population genetics models, including kin and group selection models.