This article elaborates on McShea and Brandon’s idea that drift is unlike the rest of the evolutionary factors because it is constitutive rather than imposed on the evolutionary process. I show that the way they spelled out this idea renders it inadequate and is the reason why it received some (good) objections. I propose a different way in which their point could be understood, that rests on two general distinctions. The first is a distinction between the underlying mathematical apparatus used to formulate a theory and a concept proposed by that theory. With the aid of a formal reconstruction of a population genetic model, I show that drift belongs to the first category. That is, that drift is constitutive of population genetics in the same sense that multiplication is constitutive in classical mechanics, or that circle is constitutive in Ptolemaic astronomy. The second distinction is between eliminating a concept from a theory and setting its value to zero. I will show that even though drift can be set to zero just like the rest of the evolutionary factors (as others have noted in their criticism of McShea and Brandon), eliminating drift is much harder than eliminating those other factors, since it would require changing the entire mathematical apparatus of standard population genetic theory. I conclude by drawing some other implications from the proposed formal reconstruction.

中文翻译：

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漂移作为本能：从人口遗传学的正式重建得出的结论。

本文详细阐述了麦克希亚（McShea）和布兰登（Brandon）的观点，即漂移不同于其余的进化因素，因为漂移是构成性的而不是强加于进化过程的。我证明了他们拼写出这个想法的方式使其不足，这也是它收到一些（良好）反对意见的原因。我提出了一种不同的方式来理解他们的观点，这取决于两个普遍的区别。首先是用于形成理论的基础数学装置与该理论提出的概念之间的区别。借助种群遗传模型的正式重建，我证明了漂移属于第一类。也就是说，漂移是种群遗传学的本构，就如同在传统力学中乘法是本构，或那个圆在托勒密天文学中是本性的。第二个区别是在理论上消除一个概念并将其值设置为零。我将证明，即使像其他进化因素一样可以将漂移设置为零（正如其他人在对McShea和Brandon的批评中所指出的那样），消除漂移比消除其他因素要困难得多，因为这需要改变标准种群遗传理论的整个数学工具。最后，我从拟议的正式重建中得出其他一些启示。我将证明，即使像其他进化因素一样可以将漂移设置为零（正如其他人在对McShea和Brandon的批评中所指出的那样），消除漂移比消除其他因素要困难得多，因为这需要改变标准种群遗传理论的整个数学工具。最后，我从拟议的正式重建中得出其他一些启示。我将证明，即使像其他进化因素一样可以将漂移设置为零（正如其他人在对McShea和Brandon的批评中所指出的那样），消除漂移比消除其他因素要困难得多，因为这需要改变标准种群遗传理论的整个数学工具。最后，我从拟议的正式重建中得出其他一些启示。