Metascientific views: Challenge and opportunity for philosophy of biology in practice

In this paper I take evolutionary biology as an example to reflect on the role of philosophy and on the transformations that philosophy is constantly stimulated to do in its own approach when dealing with science. I consider that some intellectual movements within evolutionary biology (more specifically, the various calls for 'synthesis') express metascientific views, i.e., claims about 'what it is to do research' in evolutionary biology at different times. In the construction of metascientific views I see a fundamental role to be played by philosophy, and, at the same time, a need to complement the philosophical methods with many more methods coming from other sciences. What leads philosophy out of itself is its own attention to scientific practice. My humble methodological suggestions are, at this stage, only meant to help us imagine metascientific views that are built with a more scientific, interdisciplinary approach, in order to attenuate partiality, subjectivity and impressionism in describing the scientific community. And yet, we should not be naïve and imbued with the myth of 'datadriven' research, especially in this field: other complex issues about metascientific views call for a serious, constant philosophical reflection on scientific practice

The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature, by Scott Atran and Douglas Medin. Cambridge, Massachussets: The MIT Press, 2008. Pp. viii + 333, $40.00 (H/b)

Keywords Folkbiology.Folktaxonomy.Folkecology.Biology education.Environment.Anthropology.Cognitive psychologyAlthough this is a long review, I only cover perhaps twothirds of the contents of The Native Mind and the CulturalConstruction of Nature, and very briefly indeed. As thepress release informs us, this book draws on two decades ofresearchandcontainsahugeyieldofdata,analyses,researchprotocols, and theoretical background. Folkbiology is theinterdisciplinary perspective on how people ordinarilyunderstand the biological world (Medin and Atran 1999).In The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction ofNature, we appreciate how far the implications of this fieldcan go. In this overview, I choose a geographical approach:we fly from Guatemala, to Wisconsin, then to the MiddleEast. We then land in university classes and end up inschool classrooms. This tour gives me a minimum basis fora tentative critical summary of the book. In the tour, Iinclude not only findings but also research methods that Ihope will be stimulating for readers of this journal.Guatemala: A "Common Garden Experiment"In a municipality in El Peten, Guatemala, three culturalgroups live mostly by agriculture, hunting, and extractingforest products for sale. What happens when a land, lackingoverall institutional regulation, is shared by three culturalgroups with different histories? Traditional models indecision and game theory predict a "tragedy of thecommons," i.e. an initial, plausibly cooperative situationsoon subverted by individuals belonging to one of thegroups. These individuals will begin to overexploit com-mon resources, triggering a cascade of people switching tonon-cooperative behaviors. The result will be tragic: therapid depletion of common-pool resources. Remarkably, thesame models predict that common resources will instead bepreserved if—for whatever reason—all individuals of allgroups maintain a resource-saving behavior. But the pointis that saving up or even protecting resources is not at all arational choice when you know that some or many othersare not doing the same (or when you have good reasons tosuspect so). The three groups living in Peten—native Itza'Maya, Spanish-speaking Ladinos, and immigrant Q'eqchi'Maya—seem to defy such theoretical predictions: theyexhibit different patterns of common-pool resources use.Atran, Medin and their group wanted to study thisintercultural scenario, exploring in particular the relationbetween patterns of use of the forest and ways ofunderstanding it. In Chapter 7, "Folkecology and the Spiritof the Commons," we find an interesting description ofprotocols and results of this research.A series of probes, for example, was used to reveal howpeople understand the forest ecology. Each informant wasshown pictures of local plants and animals and was askedquestions about their relations. For each plant, all animalpictures were laid out and "the informant was asked if anyof the animals 'search for,''go with,' or 'are companion of'the target plant, and whether the plant helped or hurt theanimal" (p. 185). The same was done for each anima

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: a metascientific view of evolutionary biology, and some directions to transcend its limits

To approach the issue of the recent proposal of an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) put forth by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd Müller, I suggest to consider the EES as a metascientific view: a description of what’s new in how evolutionary biology is carried out, not only a description of recently learned aspects of evolution. Knowing ‘what is it to do research’ in evolutionary biology, today versus yesterday, can aid training, research and career choices, establishment of relationships and collaborations, decision of funding and research policies, in order to make the field advance for the better. After reviewing the concepts associated to the EES proposal (categorized for convenience as mechanisms, measures, fields, perspectives and applications), I show their transience, and sketch out ongoing disagreements about the EES. Then I examine the deep difficulties, i.e., the enormity and complexity of the covered field, affecting the achievement of trusted metascientific views; the insufficiency of conceptual analysis to capture the substance of scientific research; the entanglement between empirical and metascientific concepts, between multiple chronologies, and between descriptive and normative intentions; and the ineliminable stakeholding of any reviewer involved in the reviewed field. I propose that disciplines such as scientometrics, ethnography, sociology, economics and history, combined with conceptual analysis, inspire a more rigorous approach to the evolutionary biology scientific community, more grounded and shared, confirming or transforming claims for ‘synthesis’ while preserving their maintenance goals

Traits and functions in the evolution of morality

This paper is about evolutionary explanations. They come in different kinds but mostly need traits and functions. Evolutionary theory requires traits to be inheritable although not in a strong genetic sense: ideas of “inheritance pattern” and “inheritable pattern” are explored. Function is also a necessary concept, but complex and diverse, and it lacks causal power on traits. The debate on the evolution of morality is cautious and already far from naive “just-­‐so story” explanations, but theoretical analysis fleshed into morality-­‐related examples can aid towards the development of critically conscious and up-­‐to-­‐date explanatory hypotheses in this field

The Gaia narrative and its link with symbiosis and symbiogenesis

First, we will address the unnecessary link between symbio-studies and Gaia, asking for the historical and epistemological reasons why they become associated. In particular, we contend that the association is mediated by the common interest in large-scale physico-chemical and biochemical patterns, rather than by an emphasis on harmony, equilibrium, and cooperation (Visvader 1992). Second, we will ask what Gaia is in a metatheoretical sense: is it a scientific hypothesis, a theory, a metaphor, an inspired invention, or a resurgence of antiscientific attitude? After examining some alternatives that show the importance of metatheorizing, we will define Gaia a ‘scientific narrative’, this being a technical term in a sketchy metatheory. Let us just say, for now, that by narrative we don’t mean fairytale or artistic fiction, but rather a way of telling the history of our planet. We are not going to answer the question whether or not we should ban Gaia from any scientific discourse, nor the question how symbio-students should deal with the traditional association of their field with Gaia. But we hope to frame the dilemma in which symbio-students and the scientific community at large are held in a better way than simply insisting on classic demarcations between science and non-science

Macroevolutionary issues and approaches in evolutionary Biology

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Education in Evolution and Science Through Laboratory Activities

Evolution is the unifying framework for the science of biology. [...] It likewise demands an equally dominant role in biology education. [...] Simultaneously it is the most important, the most misunderstood, and most maligned concept in the syllabus—if it even appears in the syllabus (Investigating Evolutionary Biology in the Laboratory, by William F. McComas (ed.). Dubuque (Iowa): Kendall-Hunt, 2006. pp. vi + 388. s/b $ 41, 99)

Understanding Cultural Traits: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Cultural Diversity

UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2 November 2001) defines culture with an emphasis on cultural features: “culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group”, encompassing, “in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs”. Cultural traits are also the primitive of mathematical models of cultural transmission inspired by population genetics, imported and refined by economics. Any serious evaluation of the notion of “cultural trait”, however, requires the interrogation of many disciplines, from cultural anthropology to linguistics, from psychology to archaeology to musicology. The very possibility of assuming the existence of cultural traits is not granted. In order to start a wide interdisciplinary confrontation, we need a sufficiently loose definition of a cultural trait as any trait whose production in individuals depends, to some extent, on social learning; and we need a deflationary interpretive horizon where cultural traits are not expected to provide an exhaustive theory of culture and cultural change. But from there, we can go a long way if each of the involved disciplines enters the debate with a self-presenting attitude, emphasizing its own methodological practices, and explaining whether and how cultural traits have a role in its own research programs and epistemic goals. Are there differences in aspects of culture that are studied by different disciplines? What definitions of cultural traits are on the table? How do we delimit a trait? How is the problem declined at different observational scales, and which scales are most in focus? Do traits travel in geographical space, and how? Are there other relevant spaces? How are traits modified in their diffusion? Is it possible and useful to build models of this diffusion? Only a strong multidisciplinary perspective can help to clarify these problems about cultural traits, by means of which we understand our precious heritage, cultural diversity

A conceptual taxonomy of adaptation in evolutionary biology

The concept of adaptation is employed in many fields such as biology, psychology, cognitive sciences, robotics, social sciences, even literacy and art,1 and its meaning varies quite evidently according to the particular research context in which it is applied. We expect to find a particularly rich catalogue of meanings within evolutionary biology, where adaptation has held a particularly central role since Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859) throughout important epistemological shifts and scientific findings that enriched and diversified the concept. Accordingly, a conceptual taxonomy of adaptation in evolutionary biology may help to disambiguate it. Interdisciplinary researches focused on adaptation would benefit from such a result. In the present work we recognize and define seven different meanings of adaptation: (1) individual fitness; (2) adaptation of a population; (3) adaptation as the process of natural selection; (4) adaptive traits; (5) molecular adaptation; (6) adaptation as structural tinkering; (7) plasticity. For convenience here, we refer to them as W-, P-, NS-, T-, M-, S- and PL-ADAPTATION. We present the seven meanings in some detail, hinting at their respective origins and conceptual developments in the history of evolutionary thought (references are offered for further deepening). However, it is important to point out that evolution researchers seldom if ever refer to a single meaning purified from the others. This applies also to the authors we cite as representatives of one of the seven meanings. In Discussion and Conclusion draw from our work some future perspectives for adaptation within evolutionary biology

Bucket thinking:the future framework for evolutionary explanation

ABSTRACTThe hierarchical interplay between ecology and genealogy is a fundamental ingredient for the most compelling current explanations in evolutionary biology. Yet philosophy of biology has hardly welcomed a classic fundamental intuition by palaeontologist Niles Eldredge, i.e. the non-coincidence and interrelation between ecology and genealogy, and their interaction in a Sloshing Bucket fashion. Hierarchy Theory and the Sloshing Bucket need to be made precise, developed and updated in light of an explosion of new discoveries and fields and philosophical issues. They also suggests re-thinking concepts such as natural selection, species, and speciation that have always been part of evolutionary theory.KEYWORDSEVOLUTION, ECOLOGY, HIERARCHY THEORY, SLOSHING BUCKET, HOMO SAPIENSRESUMENLa interacción jerárquica entre ecología y genealogía es un ingrediente fundamental de las más convincentes explicaciones de la biología evolucionista en la actualidad. Sin embargo, la filosofía de la biología apenas ha acogido una intuición fundamental y clásica debida al paleontólogo Niles Eldredge, a saber: la no-coincidencia e interrelación entre la ecología y la genealogía, y su interacción a modo de cubeta rebosante. La Teoría de la Jerarquía y la de la Cubeta Rebosante necesitan mayor precisión, así como un ulterior desarrollo y acutalización a la luz de la explosión de nuevos descubrimientos y campos y de cuestiones filosóficas. Siguieren asimismo la necesidad de repensar conceptos tales como selección natural, especie y especiación, que han formado siempre parte de la teoría evolucionista.PALABRAS CLAVEEVOLUCIÓN, ECOLOGÍA, TEORÍA DE LA JERARQUÍA, CUBETA REBOSANTE, HOMO SAPIEN