E-Book Overview
Springer, 2014. — 366 p. — ISBN 978-94-007-7563-3.
Biology and history are often viewed as closely related disciplines, with biology informed by history, especially in its task of charting our evolutionary past. Maximizing the opportunities for cross-fertilization in these two fields requires an accurate reckoning of their commonalities and differences—precisely what this volume sets out to achieve. Specially commissioned essays by a team of recognized international researchers cover the full panoply of topics in these fields and include notable contributions on the correlativity of evolutionary and historical explanations, applying to history the latest causal-mechanical approach in the philosophy of biology, and the question of generalized laws that might pertain across the two subjects.The collection opens with a vital interrogation of general issues on explanation that apart from potentially fruitful areas of interaction (could the etiology of the causal-mechanical perspective in biology account for the historical trajectory of the Roman Empire?) this volume also seeks to chart relative certainties distinguishing explanations in biology and history. It also assesses techniques such as the use of probabilities in biological reconstruction, deployed to overcome the inevitable gaps in physical evidence on early evolution. Methodologies such as causal graphs and semantic explanation receive in-depth analysis. Contributions from a host of prominent and widely read philosophers ensure that this new volume has the stature of a major addition to the literature.
E-Book Content
Synthese Library 367
Marie I. Kaiser Oliver R. Scholz Daniel Plenge Andreas Hüttemann Editors
Explanation in the Special Sciences The Case of Biology and History
Explanation in the Special Sciences
SYNTHESE LIBRARY
STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY, LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Editors-in-Chief: VINCENT F. HENDRICKS, University of Copenhagen, Denmark JOHN SYMONS, University of Texas at El Paso, U.S.A.
Honorary Editor: JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Boston University, U.S.A.
Editors: DIRK VAN DALEN, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands THEO A.F. KUIPERS, University of Groningen, The Netherlands TEDDY SEIDENFELD, Carnegie Mellon University, U.S.A. PATRICK SUPPES, Stanford University, California, U.S.A. ´ JAN WOLENSKI, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
VOLUME 367 For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6607
Marie I. Kaiser • Oliver R. Scholz • Daniel Plenge Andreas Hüttemann Editors
Explanation in the Special Sciences The Case of Biology and History
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Editors Marie I. Kaiser Philosophisches Seminar Universität zu Köln Köln, Germany
Oliver R. Scholz Philosophisches Seminar Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster Münster, Germany
Daniel Plenge Philosophisches Seminar Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster Münster, Germany
Andreas Hüttemann Philosophisches Seminar Universität zu Köln Köln, Germany
ISBN 978-94-007-7562-6 ISBN 978-94-007-7563-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7563-3 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London Library of Congress Control Number: 2013955260 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with re