When Do Optimisation Arguments Make Evolutionary Sense?

Gyllenberg, M., Metz, J.A.J., & Service, R. (2011). When Do Optimisation Arguments Make Evolutionary Sense? IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-11-011

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Abstract

In this Chapter we investigate how optimisation approaches fit with the ESS (Evolutionarily Stable Strategy) viewpoint. There are three reasons for embarking on such an effort. The first one is practical. We want to develop a feel for the reach of the optimisation results. In general, optimisation approaches appear to work rather well, notwithstanding their basically awed methodology. (This paradox will be resolved at the end of Subsection 2.3.) The optimisation literature is not so much wrong as imprecise in that its reach is far less than suggested, and its results have been put only to correspondingly restricted tests. The next two reasons come into play when we want to do away with those strong implicit restrictions. The first one is again practical. Given the relative simplicity of optimisation procedures we want a handle on how to rig an eco-evolutionary model so that its ESSes can be calculated from an optimisation principle, as well as insight into the robustness of the results from such limited models. Finally, on the fundamental side there is the wish for insight on a meta-level. In precisely what manner do the various approaches in the literature fit together? In the textbooks one can find various hand-waving answers. We aim for precise ones.

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