Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
In 1966, Richard Levins argued that there are different strategies in model building in population biology. In this paper, I reply to Orzack and Sober's (1993) critiques of Levins and argue that his views on modeling strategies apply also in the context of evolutionary genetics. In particular, I argue that there are different ways in which models are used to ask and answer questions about the dynamics of evolutionary change, prospectively and retrospectively, in classical versus molecular evolutionary genetics. Further, I argue that robustness analysis is a tool for, if not confirmation, then something near enough, in this discipline.
Thanks to Michael Weisberg for organizing our symposium session, and thanks to my fellow symposiasts, Jay Odenbaugh, and Janet Stemwedel and Peter Godfrey Smith for chairing the session. Thanks also to Jim Lennox, Rob Skipper, and Elliott Sober and members of the audience at the meeting for their thoughtful comments.