Monte Carlo experiments and the defense of diffusion models in molecular population genetics

Biology and Philosophy 11 (3):339-356 (1996)
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Abstract

In the 1960s molecular population geneticists used Monte Carlo experiments to evaluate particular diffusion equation models. In this paper I examine the nature of this comparative evaluation and argue for three claims: first, Monte Carlo experiments are genuine experiments: second, Monte Carlo experiments can provide an important meansfor evaluating the adequacy of highly idealized theoretical models; and, third, the evaluation of the computational adequacy of a diffusion model with Monte Carlo experiments is significantlydifferent from the evaluation of the emperical adequacy of the same diffusion model.

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Michael Dietrich
University of Pittsburgh

Citations of this work

Confirmation and explaining how possible.Patrick Forber - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (1):32-40.
Why Monte Carlo Simulations Are Inferences and Not Experiments.Claus Beisbart & John D. Norton - 2012 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 26 (4):403-422.
Calibration of laboratory models in population genetics.Robert A. Skipper - 2004 - Perspectives on Science 12 (4):369-393.

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References found in this work

Theory and Evidence.Clark N. Glymour - 1980 - Princeton University Press.
The Disunity of science: boundaries, contexts, and power.Peter Louis Galison & David J. Stump (eds.) - 1996 - Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Theory and Evidence.Clark Glymour - 1982 - Erkenntnis 18 (1):105-130.

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