From philosophy to science (to natural philosophy): Evolutionary developmental perspectives

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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 languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)65-76
Number of pages12
JournalQuarterly Review of Biology
Volume83
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2008

Keywords

  • Abstraction
  • Ectoderm
  • Epistemology
  • Evo-devo
  • Generalization
  • Innovation
  • Methodology
  • Multidisciplinary
  • Novelty
  • Problems
  • Sea urchins
  • Skeletogenesis

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