Historical Science, Over- and Underdetermined: A Study of Darwin’s Inference of Origins
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62 (4):805-829 (2011)
Abstract
The epistemology of the historical sciences has been debated recently. Cleland argued that the effects of the past overdetermine it. Turner argued that the past is underdetermined by its effects because of the decay of information from the past. I argue that the extent of over- and underdetermination cannot be approximated by philosophical inquiry. It is an empirical question that each historical science attempts to answer. Philosophers should examine how paradigmatic cases of historical science handled underdetermination or utilized overdetermination. I analyze such a paradigmatic case, Darwin’s phylogenetic inferences. Darwin proceeded in three consecutive stages. The initial inference that there was some common cause of homologies was usually overdetermined. The final inference of the character traits of ancestor species was usually underdetermined. The second stage inference of the causal net that connected the species that share some common cause was inbetween. A comparison with Comparative Historical Linguistics demonstrates similar three stages of inference that move from the over- to the underdeterminedAuthor's Profile
DOI
10.1093/bjps/axr012
My notes
Similar books and articles
Causal Efficacy: The Structure of Darwin’s Argument Strategy in the Origin of Species.Doren A. Recker - 1987 - Philosophy of Science 54 (2):147-175.
Abductive knowledge and Holmesian inference.Alexander Bird - 2005 - In Tamar Szabo Gendler & John Hawthorne (eds.), Oxford Studies in Epistemology. Oxford University Press. pp. 1--31.
The Preface to Darwin’s Origin of Species: The Curious History of the “Historical Sketch”. [REVIEW]Curtis N. Johnson - 2007 - Journal of the History of Biology 40 (3):529 - 556.
Taking Analogical Inference Seriously: Darwin's Argument from Artificial Selection.C. Kenneth Waters - 1986 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986:502 - 513.
Prediction and Explanation in Historical Natural Science.Carol E. Cleland - 2011 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62 (3):551-582.
Are Cultural Phylogenies Possible?Robert Boyd, Monique Bogerhoff-Mulder & Peter J. Richerson - 1997 - In Peter Weingart, Sandra D. Mitchell, Peter J. Richerson & Sabine Maasen (eds.), Human by Nature. London: pp. 355-386.
The functions of fossils: Inference and explanation in functional morphology.Derek Turner - 2000 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 31 (1):193-212.
Why was Darwin’s view of species rejected by twentieth century biologists?James Mallet - 2010 - Biology and Philosophy 25 (4):497-527.
Modeling causal structures: Volterra’s struggle and Darwin’s success.Raphael Scholl & Tim Räz - 2013 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 3 (1):115-132.
Analytics
Added to PP
2011-07-19
Downloads
43 (#274,068)
6 months
2 (#300,644)
2011-07-19
Downloads
43 (#274,068)
6 months
2 (#300,644)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
The Ontic Account of Scientific Explanation.Carl F. Craver - 2014 - In Marie I. Kaiser, Oliver R. Scholz, Daniel Plenge & Andreas Hüttemann (eds.), Explanation in the Special Sciences: The Case of Biology and History. Springer Verlag. pp. 27-52.
Model Organisms are Not (Theoretical) Models.Arnon Levy & Adrian Currie - 2015 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (2):327-348.
Hot-Blooded Gluttons: Dependency, Coherence, and Method in the Historical Sciences.Adrian Currie - 2017 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68 (4):929-952.
Method Pluralism, Method Mismatch, & Method Bias.Adrian Currie & Shahar Avin - 2019 - Philosophers' Imprint 19.
A second look at the colors of the dinosaurs.Derek D. Turner - 2016 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 55:60-68.
References found in this work
The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo.Ron Amundson - 2005 - Cambridge University Press.
Knowledge and the Flow of Information.Fred I. Dretske - 1981 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 175 (1):69-70.