Dear Colleagues: Could someone tell me where analogies (e.g., from economics) came from into ecology? I can think of many of them, such as:
1. comparing living things with machines - I assume as a result of 16-17th century advances in astronomy, 2. comparing populations and above with well organized "societies", such as the expressions "balance of nature" (<-- as I understand it, a totally debunked yet cherished idea), "economy of nature", etc. This seems to me to be influenced by classical economics. 3. comparing "decisions" of organisms with "trade-offs". I wonder if there are cases where this is not true. It seems to me that such an attitude leads to conformism in human societies, which is good for those with power. Overall, often I wonder under what circumstances where the analogies brought into the sciences, how have those analogies shaped the course of science and society, and, most importantly, whether the have been tested rigorously (ajka, whether they are true :) . Please, send any constructive feedback to me directly, blayjo...@gmail.com Gratefully, Jorge P.S. It does not escape my memory that Darwin remembered artificial selection when thinking about natural selection. Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD blaypublishers.com 1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in *LEB* http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/ 2. Free examples of papers published in *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/. 3. *Guidelines for Authors* and page charges of *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ *.* 4. Want to subscribe to *LEB*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/ http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/ http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm
