Abstract
This paper focuses on abstraction as a mode of reasoning that facilitates a productive relationship between philosophy and science. Using examples from evolutionary developmental biology, I argue that there are two areas where abstraction can be relevant to science: reasoning explication and problem clarification. The value of abstraction is characterized in terms of methodology (modeling or data gathering) and epistemology (explanatory evaluation or data interpretation).
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 65-76 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Quarterly Review of Biology |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2008 |
Keywords
- Abstraction
- Ectoderm
- Epistemology
- Evo-devo
- Generalization
- Innovation
- Methodology
- Multidisciplinary
- Novelty
- Problems
- Sea urchins
- Skeletogenesis