The four principles of adaptation

• Published in: Ecological modelling 2002-10, Vol.156 (1), p.61-84
• Main Author: Hulburt, Edward M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adapted; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Axiomatic proof; Biological and medical sciences; Cold-bloodedness; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; Logically valid model; Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...); Not adapted; Property; Repeating evolution; Terminal evolution; Universal; Warm-bloodedness
• ISSN: 0304-3800; 1872-7026
• DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3800(02)00124-2

There are four principles of adaptation. The first is that if two quite different entities occur under the same condition, then one is adapted and the other is not adapted to this condition. Thus the warm-blooded vertebrate is adapted to year-round temperature in temperate regions because it is behaviorally active year-round, whereas the cold-blooded vertebrate is not adapted to year-round temperature because it is not active year-round. The second principle is that if one entity occurs under two quite different conditions, then it is adapted to one condition but is not adapted to the other condition. Thus the North American forest is adapted to moist conditions in the east and west, but is not adapted to the non-moist, semi-desert regions of the southwest. The third principle is that if one entity is adapted to a second, then the second is adapted to the first. Thus the white spruce was adapted to an expanding locale between 12 000 and 9000 years ago in the mid-west of North America, and this locale was adapted to the spruce. The fourth principle is that two quite different entities occur under two quite different conditions, and one is adapted to its condition and the other is adapted to its condition. Thus, there is a tendency (an entity) toward many boned toes in the paddle limbs of aquatic vertebrates and this is an adaptation to swimming, and there is a tendency toward two or one toes in land vertebrates and this is an adaptation to running. The four principles have a logically valid structure. An example is: if an animal is behaviorally active under year-round temperate temperature, P, then the animal is adapted to year-round temperate temperature, Q; equivalent to: if the animal is not year-round adapted, ∼ Q, then the animal is not year-round active, ∼ P( P⊃ Q)≡(∼ Q⊃∼ P). Generation of this formula from the axioms of Logic for Mathematicians (Rosser, 1953) p. 530 takes a number of proofs. When it is said that an entity is behaviorally active, it is meant that the entity has the property of being behaviorally active. When it is said that an entity is adapted (to year-round temperature), it is meant that the entity has the property of being adapted, the property of adaptedness (to year-round temperature). This is the philosophical realist view. So by empirical justification and logical and philosophical ramification, an integrated model of the principles of adaptation is sought.