Le Bourg E
Laboratoire d'Ethologie et Psychologie Animale, UMR CNRS No. 5550, Université Paul-Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
Gerontology. 1998;44(6):345-8. doi: 10.1159/000022040.
Evolutionary theories are considered by a growing number of gerontologists as providing a basis to understand why aging occurs.
In such conditions, a risk could exist to favor evolutionary explanations rather than nonevolutionary ones, even when both equally fit the data.
A paper recently published on longevity in ants is analyzed, and a study of fertility and longevity in human beings is done to illustrate this risk.
In the two cases, evolutionary and concurrent hypotheses may apply to the same data.
When both kinds of explanations may be applied, the way to solve the problem is not to favor one explanation by relying on a priori preferences, particularly if the favored hypothesis is still controversial.
越来越多的老年医学专家认为进化理论为理解衰老为何发生提供了基础。
在这种情况下，即使进化解释和非进化解释同样符合数据，也可能存在偏向进化解释而非非进化解释的风险。
分析最近发表的一篇关于蚂蚁寿命的论文，并开展一项关于人类生育力和寿命的研究以说明这种风险。
在这两个案例中，进化假说和并存假说可能适用于相同的数据。
当两种解释都适用时，解决问题的方法不是基于先入为主的偏好而偏向某一种解释，特别是如果所支持的假说仍存在争议的话。
