Evolutionary Explanations of Simple Communication: Signalling Games and Their Models

Journal for General Philosophy of Science - Tập 51 - Trang 19-43 - 2019
Travis LaCroix1,2
1Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine, USA
2Mila (Québec Artificial Intelligence Institute/Institut Québécois d’Intelligence Artificielle), Montréal, Canada

Tóm tắt

This paper applies the theoretical criteria laid out by D’Arms et al. (1998) to various aspects of evolutionary models of signalling. The question that D’Arms et al. seek to answer can be formulated as follows: Are the models that we use to explain the phenomena in question conceptually adequate? The conceptual adequacy question relates the formal aspects of the model to those aspects of the natural world that the model is supposed to capture. Moreover, this paper extends the analysis of D’Arms et al. by asking the following additional question: Are the models that we use sufficient to explain the phenomena in question? The sufficiency question asks what formal resources are minimally required for the model to get the right results most of the time.

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