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  • Ingo Brigandt (forthcoming). Beyond Reduction and Pluralism: Toward an Epistemology of Explanatory Integration in Biology. Erkenntnis.
    The paper works towards an account of explanatory integration in biology, using as a case study explanations of the evolutionary origin of novelties-a problem requiring the integration of several biological fields and approaches. In contrast to the idea that fields studying lower level phenomena are always more fundamental in explanations, I argue that the particular combination of disciplines and theoretical approaches needed to address a complex biological problem and which among them is explanatorily more fundamental varies with the problem pursued. Solving a complex problem need not require theoretical unification or the stable synthesis of different biological fields, as items of knowledge from traditional disciplines can be related solely for the purposes of a specific problem. Apart from the development of genuine interfield theories, successful integration can be effected by smaller epistemic units (concepts, methods, explanations) being linked. Unification or integration is not an aim in itself, but needed for the aim of solving a particular scientific problem, where the problem's nature determines the kind of intellectual integration required.
    Epistemic Contextualism in Epistemology
    Evolutionary Developmental Biology in Philosophy of Biology
    Reduction and Interlevel Relations, Misc in General Philosophy of Science
    Nonreductive Materialism in Philosophy of Mind
    Reductionism in General Philosophy of Science
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  • 124.0Cor Weele (1993). Explaining Embryological Development: Should Integration Be the Goal? Biology and Philosophy 8 (4).
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  • 98.8William P. Bechtel & Andrew Hamilton (2007). Reduction, Integration, and the Unity of Science: Natural, Behavioral, and Social Sciences and the Humanities. In T. Kuipers (ed.), Philosophy of Science: Focal Issues (Volume 1 of the Handbook of the Philosophy of Science). Elsevier.
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  • 96.9Ingo Brigandt, The Role a Concept Plays in Science: The Case of Homology.
    The present paper gives a philosophical analysis of the conceptual variation in the homology concept. It is argued that different homology concepts are used in evolutionary and comparative biology, in evolutionary developmental biology, and in molecular biology. The study uses conceptual role semantics, focusing on the inferences and explanations supported by concepts, as a heuristic tool to explain conceptual change. The differences between homology concepts are due to the fact that these concepts play different theoretical roles for different biological fields. (...) The specific theoretical needs and explanatory interests of different research approaches lead to different homology concepts. (shrink)
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  • 90.4Richard M. Burian (1993). Unification and Coherence as Methodological Objectives in the Biological Sciences. Biology and Philosophy 8 (3).
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