Friday, 3 February 2006
Integration or Isolation? Explanation, Pluralism and Sex
Carla Fehr, Iowa State University
12:05 pm, 817R Cathedral of Learning
Abstract: The biological sciences are rife
with explanatory pluralism. For example, there are over 20 different
extant explanations for the evolution of sexual reproduction.
Should these different explanations be integrated with one another
or isolated from one another? Thinking about the local epistemologies
of scientific communities can help answer this question. In
particular I look at the epistemic context of the integration of
individual and group selection explanations for the evolution of
sex.
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