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Wiley InterScience | |||||||
  OikosVolume 110 Issue 2, Pages 390 - 393 Published Online: 13 May 2005 Journal compilation © 2009 Oikos
Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 55K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking  The anarchist's guide to ecological theory. Or, we don't need no stinkin' laws Copyright OIKOS ABSTRACTSeveral ecologists have recently suggested that ecology has several laws. This conclusion contrasts with the views of some philosophers of science, who have suggested that biology cannot have laws. I argue that the debate has been confused because two very different types of law can be recognised: correlative and causal laws. Once we recognise that there is a difference, the argument against causal laws becomes stronger, and instead I suggest that ecologists should recognise that they can and do produce generalisations that are used to build models – nomological machines – that describe the ecological systems they are studying. | 
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