The Case Study Method in Philosophy of Science: An Empirical Study

There is an ongoing methodological debate in philosophy of science concerning the use of case studies as evidence for and/or against theories about science. In this paper, I aim to make a contribution to this debate by taking an empirical approach. I present the results of a systematic survey of the PhilSci-Archive, which suggest that a sizeable proportion of papers in philosophy of science contain appeals to case studies, as indicated by the occurrence of the indicator words “case study” and/or “case studies.” These results are confirmed by data mined from the JSTOR database on research articles published in leading journals in the field: Philosophy of Science, the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (BJPS), and the Journal for General Philosophy of Science (JGPS), as well as the Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA). The data also show upward trends in appeals to case studies in articles published in Philosophy of Science, the BJPS, and the JGPS. The empirical work I have done for this paper provides philosophers of science who are wary of the use of case studies as evidence for and/or against theories about science with a way to do philosophy of science that is informed by data rather than case studies

Creationism and evolution

In Tower of Babel, Robert Pennock wrote that “defenders of evolution would help their case immeasurably if they would reassure their audience that morality, purpose, and meaning are not lost by accepting the truth of evolution.” We first consider the thesis that the creationists’ movement exploits moral concerns to spread its ideas against the theory of evolution. We analyze their arguments and possible reasons why they are easily accepted. Creationists usually employ two contradictive strategies to expose the purported moral degradation that comes with accepting the theory of evolution. On the one hand they claim that evolutionary theory is immoral. On the other hand creationists think of evolutionary theory as amoral. Both objections come naturally in a monotheistic view. But we can find similar conclusions about the supposed moral aspects of evolution in non-religiously inspired discussions. Meanwhile, the creationism-evolution debate mainly focuses — understandably — on what constitutes good science. We consider the need for moral reassurance and analyze reassuring arguments from philosophers. Philosophers may stress that science does not prescribe and is therefore not immoral, but this reaction opens the door for the objection of amorality that evolution — as a naturalistic world view at least — supposedly endorses. We consider that the topic of morality and its relation to the acceptance of evolution may need more empirical research

Sometimes You Ride the Pegasus, Sometimes You Take the Road: Mitchell on Laws in Biology

Mitchell’s philosophical contributions are part of an ongoing conversation among philosophers and scientists about laws and unification in biology, going back at least to Darwin. This article situates Mitchell in this conversation, explains why and how she has correctly guided us away from false idols, and engages several difficult questions she leaves open. I argue that there are different epistemic roles laws (or models describing lawlike regularities) play in biological inquiry. First, they play the role of “how possibly” explanations, akin to Herschel’s characterization of Whewell’s “a priori Pegasus,” and second, they provide descriptions of empirical regularities, akin to the “plain matter of fact roadster.

Scientific Models and Representation

My two daughters would love to go tobogganing down the hill by themselves, but they are just toddlers and I am an apprehensive parent, so, before letting them do so, I want to ensure that the toboggan won’t go too fast. But how fast will it go? One way to try to answer this question would be to tackle the problem head on. Since my daughters and their toboggan are initially at rest, according to classical mechanics, their final velocity will be determined by the forces they will be subjected to between the moment the toboggan will be released at the top of the hill and the moment it will reach its highest speed. The problem is that, throughout their downhill journey, my daughters and the toboggan will be subjected to an incredibly large number of forces—from the gravitational pull of any massive object in the universe to the weight of the snowflake that is sitting on the tip of one of my youngest daughter’s hairs—so that any attempt to apply the theory directly to the real-world system in all its complexity seems to be doomed to failur

On Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics

This thesis makes the issue of reconciling the existence of thermodynamically irreversible processes with underlying reversible dynamics clear, so as to help explain what philosophers mean when they say that an aim of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics is to underpin aspects of thermodynamics. Many of the leading attempts to reconcile the existence of thermodynamically irreversible processes with underlying reversible dynamics proceed by way of discussions that attempt to underpin the following qualitative facts: (i) that isolated macroscopic systems that begin away from equilibrium spontaneously approach equilibrium, and (ii) that they remain in equilibrium for incredibly long periods of time. These attempts standardly appeal to phase space considerations and notions of typicality. This thesis considers and evaluates leading typicality accounts, and, in particular, highlights their limitations. Importantly, these accounts do not underpin a large and important set of facts. They do not, for example, underpin facts about the rates in which systems approach equilibrium, or facts about the kinds of states they pass through on their way to equilibrium, or facts about fluctuation phenomena. To remedy these and other shortfalls, this thesis promotes an alternative, and arguably more important, line of research: understanding and accounting for the success of the techniques and equations physicists use to model the behaviour of systems that begin away from equilibrium. Accounting for their success would help underpin not just the qualitative facts the literature has focused on, but also many of the important quantitative facts that typicality accounts cannot. This thesis also takes steps in this promising direction. It outlines and examines a technique commonly used to model the behaviour of an interesting and important kind of system: a Brownian particle that\u27s been introduced to an isolated homogeneous fluid at equilibrium. As this thesis highlights, the technique returns a wealth of quantitative and qualitative information. This thesis also attempts to account for the success of the model and technique, by identifying and grounding the technique\u27s key assumptions

Body satisfaction and weight-related appearance management in a two-way mirror: mother-daughter interactions as mediation of the mass media\u27s thin female ideal

The purpose of this study was to explore the reciprocal socialization process between adolescent girls and their mothers and how this process shapes daughters\u27 and mothers\u27 media use, body-related feelings and behaviors, and beliefs about the thin female ideal in the media. An interpretive approach was used to explore these issues. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with 20 mother-daughter pairs;Grounded theory analysis revealed two overarching (major) themes within the data: (a) mothers\u27 and daughters\u27 personal and interpersonal experiences with the female body and (b) mothers\u27 and daughters\u27 experiences with the female body as it is culturally situated in the media;Five minor themes emerged as related to the major theme of personal and interpersonal experiences with the body: (a) appearance orientation, or the role of appearance in the everyday lives of the participants, (b) body cathexis, or degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the body, (c) individual diet-related behaviors, (d) interpersonal approaches to (i.e., mother-daughter interactions related to) the body and dieting, and (e) body malleability, or the extent to which participants perceived the appearance of their bodies as changeable. ;Five minor themes emerged as related to the major theme of experiences with the female body as it is situated in the media: (a) media involvement, (b) perceived realism of media presentations of the female body, (c) identification with media presentations of the female body, (d) idealization of media presentations of the female body, and (e) social comparison processes, or comparisons of one\u27s own appearance with media presentations of the female body;Findings from this study indicated that mothers and daughters did symbolically interact with respect to issues encompassed by each of these minor themes, thereby contributing to each other\u27s (a) feelings about and behaviors toward the body and (b) interpretations of body-related media. The data also supported theoretical linkages among interpretations of body-related media, personal and interpersonal body-related feelings and behaviors, and social comparison tendencies and outcomes. At the conclusion of this study, these relationships are modeled and/or discussed and implications for future research are addressed