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Selection and the Extent of Explanatory Unification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Robert A. Skipper Jr.
Robert A. Skipper Jr.*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
*
†Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, 1125A Skinner Building, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD 20742; e-mail: skipper@carnap.umd.edu.
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Abstract

According to Philip Kitcher, scientific unification is achieved via the derivation of numerous scientific statements from economies of argument schemata. I demonstrate that the unification of selection phenomena across domains in which it is claimed to occur—evolutionary biology, immunology and, speculatively, neurobiology—is unattainable on Kitcher's view. I then introduce an alternative method for rendering the desired unification based on the concept of a mechanism schema. I conclude that the gain in unification provided by the alternative account suggests that Kitcher's view is defective.

Type
Philosophy of Biology
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 66 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1999 , 1999 , pp. S196 - S209
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I am indebted to a number of people for their efforts in helping me make my ideas in this paper clear. I am especially grateful to my mentor and friend Lindley Darden for her encouragement and her valuable insights on the ideas expressed in this paper even, indeed especially, when we disagreed. Thanks also to Carl Craver, Tetsuji Iseda, and Ben Scofield for their valuable comments on an earlier draft. Finally, thanks to Roberta Millstein, Sandra D. Mitchell, Karen Neander, and Günter Wagner for their comments and criticisms at the presentation of this paper at PSA 1998 in Kansas City, MO.

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