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1How to infer metaphysics from scientific practice as a biologist mightIn William C. Bausman, Janella K. Baxter & Oliver M. Lean (eds.), From biological practice to scientific metaphysics, University of Minnesota Press. 2023.
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17From biological practice to scientific metaphysics (edited book)University of Minnesota Press. 2023.Exploring what a scientific metaphysics grounded in biological practices could look like and how it might impact the way we investigate the world around us, the contributors to From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics review and discuss long-held objections to metaphysics by natural scientists. They illuminate how, in order to learn about the world as it truly is, we must look not only at what scientists say but also what they do.
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From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics. Minnesota Studies in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 23 (edited book)University of Minnesota Press. 2024.Numerous scholarly works focus solely on scientific metaphysics or biological practice, but few attempt to bridge the two subjects. This volume, the latest in the Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science series, explores what a scientific metaphysics grounded in biological practices could look like and how it might impact the way we investigate the world around us. From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics examines how to reconcile the methods of biological practice with the metho…Read more
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302The Role of Starting Points to Order Investigation: Why and How to Enrich the Logic of Research QuestionsPhilosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 6 (14). 2022.What methodological approaches do research programs use to investigate the world? Elisabeth Lloyd’s Logic of Research Questions (LRQ) characterizes such approaches in terms of the questions that the researchers ask and causal factors they consider. She uses the Logic of Research Questions Framework to criticize adaptationist programs in evolutionary biology for dogmatically assuming selection explanations of the traits of organisms. I argue that Lloyd’s general criticism of methodological adapta…Read more
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485The Aims and Structures of Ecological Research ProgramsPhilosophical Topics 47 (1): 1-20. 2019.Neutral Theory is controversial in ecology. Ecologists and philosophers have diagnosed the source of the controversy as: its false assumption that individuals in different species within the same trophic level are ecologically equivalent, its conflict with Competition Theory and the adaptation of species, its role as a null hypothesis, and as a Lakatosian research programme. In this paper, I show why we should instead understand the conflict at the level of research programs which involve more t…Read more
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93Not null enough: pseudo-null hypotheses in community ecology and comparative psychologyBiology and Philosophy 33 (3-4): 30. 2018.We evaluate a common reasoning strategy used in community ecology and comparative psychology for selecting between competing hypotheses. This strategy labels one hypothesis as a “null” on the grounds of its simplicity and epistemically privileges it as accepted until rejected. We argue that this strategy is unjustified. The asymmetrical treatment of statistical null hypotheses is justified through the experimental and mathematical contexts in which they are used, but these contexts are missing i…Read more
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38Modeling: Neutral, Null, and BaselinePhilosophy of Science 85 (4): 594-616. 2018.Two strategies for using a model as “null” are distinguished. Null modeling evaluates whether a process is causally responsible for a pattern by testing it against a null model. Baseline modeling measures the relative significance of various processes responsible for a pattern by detecting deviations from a baseline model. When these strategies are conflated, models are illegitimately privileged as accepted until rejected. I illustrate this using the neutral theory of ecology and draw general le…Read more
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695Neutral Theory, Biased WorldDissertation, University of Minnesota. 2016.The ecologist today finds scarce ground safe from controversy. Decisions must be made about what combination of data, goals, methods, and theories offers them the foundations and tools they need to construct and defend their research. When push comes to shove, ecologists often turn to philosophy to justify why it is their approach that is scientific. Karl Popper’s image of science as bold conjectures and heroic refutations is routinely enlisted to justify testing hypotheses over merely confirmin…Read more
Zürich, Canton of Zürich, Switzerland
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |
Philosophy of Linguistics |