Potochnik, Angela (2010) Explanatory Independence and Epistemic Interdependence: A Case Study of the Optimality Approach. [Preprint]
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Abstract
The value of optimality modeling has long been a source of contention amongst population biologists. Here I present a view of the optimality approach as at once playing a crucial explanatory role and yet also depending on external sources of confirmation. Optimality models are not alone in facing this tension between their explanatory value and their dependence on other approaches; I suspect that the scenario is quite common in science. This investigation of the optimality approach thus serves as a case study, on the basis of which I suggest that there is a widely felt tension in science between explanatory independence and broad epistemic interdependence, and that this tension influences scientific methodology.
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Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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Keywords: | game theory, optimality modeling, explanation, idealization | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Models and Idealization |
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Depositing User: | Angela Potochnik | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 12 May 2021 03:10 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 12 May 2021 03:10 | ||||||
Item ID: | 19018 | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science | ||||||
DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.1093/bjps/axp022 | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology > Evolutionary Theory General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Models and Idealization |
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Date: | 2010 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 213-233 | ||||||
Volume: | 61 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19018 |
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