Explanation in the Special Sciences: The Case of Biology and History PDF
Preview Explanation in the Special Sciences: The Case of Biology and History
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 STUDIESINEPISTEMOLOGY, LOGIC,METHODOLOGY,ANDPHILOSOPHYOFSCIENCE Editors-in-Chief: VINCENTF.HENDRICKS,UniversityofCopenhagen,Denmark JOHNSYMONS,UniversityofTexasatElPaso,U.S.A. HonoraryEditor: JAAKKOHINTIKKA,BostonUniversity,U.S.A. Editors: DIRKVANDALEN,UniversityofUtrecht,TheNetherlands THEOA.F.KUIPERS,UniversityofGroningen,TheNetherlands TEDDYSEIDENFELD,CarnegieMellonUniversity,U.S.A. PATRICKSUPPES,StanfordUniversity,California,U.S.A. JANWOLEN´SKI,JagiellonianUniversity,Kraków,Poland VOLUME367 Forfurthervolumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6607 Marie I. Kaiser (cid:129) Oliver R. Scholz (cid:129) Daniel Plenge Andreas Hüttemann Editors Explanation in the Special Sciences The Case of Biology and History 123 Editors MarieI.Kaiser OliverR.Scholz PhilosophischesSeminar PhilosophischesSeminar UniversitätzuKöln WestfälischeWilhelms-UniversitätMünster Köln,Germany Münster,Germany DanielPlenge AndreasHüttemann PhilosophischesSeminar PhilosophischesSeminar WestfälischeWilhelms-UniversitätMünster UniversitätzuKöln Münster,Germany Köln,Germany ISBN978-94-007-7562-6 ISBN978-94-007-7563-3(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-94-007-7563-3 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergNewYorkLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013955260 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaDordrecht2014 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof thematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation, broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerptsinconnection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. 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Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Contents 1 Introduction:PointsofContactBetweenBiologyandHistory........ 1 MarieI.KaiserandDanielPlenge PartI GeneralIssuesonExplanation 2 TheOnticAccountofScientificExplanation............................ 27 CarlF.Craver PartII ExplanationintheBiologicalSciences 3 CausalGraphsandBiologicalMechanisms ............................. 55 AlexanderGebharterandMarieI.Kaiser 4 SemioticExplanationintheBiologicalSciences ........................ 87 UlrichKrohs 5 Mechanisms,Patho-Mechanisms,andtheExplanationof DiseaseinScientificallyBasedClinicalMedicine....................... 99 G.Müller-Strahl 6 TheGeneralizationsofBiology:HistoricalandContingent?.......... 131 AlexanderReutlinger 7 EvolutionaryExplanationsandtheRoleofMechanisms.............. 155 GerhardSchurz PartIII ExplanationintheHistoricalSciences 8 ExplainingRomanHistory:ACaseStudy .............................. 173 StephanBerry v vi Contents 9 CausalExplanationandHistoricalMeaning:HowtoSolve theProblemoftheSpecificHistoricalRelationBetweenEvents...... 197 DorisGerber 10 DoHistoriansStudytheMechanismsofHistory?ASketch........... 211 DanielPlenge 11 PhilosophyofHistory:MetaphysicsandEpistemology ................ 245 OliverR.Scholz 12 CausalExplanationsofHistoricalTrends ............................... 255 DerekD.Turner PartIV BridgingtheTwoDisciplines 13 AspectsofHumanHistoriographicExplanation:AView fromthePhilosophyofScience............................................ 273 StuartGlennan 14 HistoryandtheSciences................................................... 293 PhilipKitcherandDanielImmerwahr 15 Explanation and Intervention in Coupled Human andNaturalSystems ....................................................... 325 DanielSteel 16 BiologyandNaturalHistory:WhatMakestheDifference?........... 347 AviezerTucker Contributors StephanBerryhasworkedmanyyearsinthelabonproblemsfrombiophysicsand biochemistry; today he is working as a freelance science author. His publications, both academic titles and introductory texts for lay readers, cover issues from biophysicsandevolutionaryscienceaswellashistoryandarchaeology.Acommon thread in these seemingly disparate areas is the notion of processes: What are the drivingforcesforprocesses,andhowcanwereconstructtheirtrajectories–within the cell or the organism, during historical change on the scale of societies, and on thegloballevelofbiologicalevolution? Carl F. Craver is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and thePhilosophy-Neuroscience-PsychologyProgramatWashingtonUniversityinSt. Louis.HeistheauthorofExplainingtheBrain(ClarendonPress)andthecoauthor ofTheSearchforMechanisms:DiscoveriesAcrosstheLifeSciences(Universityof ChicagoPress). Alexander Gebharter is a predoctoral research fellow at the Department of Philosophy (Düsseldorf Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science) at the Heinrich-Heine-University,Düsseldorf,andwithintheDFGResearchGroup“Cau- sation, Laws, Dispositions, and Explanation at the Intersection of Science and Metaphysics”. He obtained a degree (Mag. phil.) in philosophy at the Department ofPhilosophyattheUniversityofSalzburgin2010.Hismainresearchinterestslie withinthephilosophyofscience. Doris Gerber is a Privatdozentin at the University of Tübingen, where she has receivedherPh.D.in2001andherHabilitationin2010.Hermainareasofinterest andcompetenceareactiontheory,socialphilosophy,philosophyofthehumanand socialsciences,philosophyofhistory,ethicsandpoliticalphilosophy.Shehaspub- lishedseveralarticlesonthesetopics.Herrecentbook,AnalytischeMetaphysikder Geschichte.Handlungen,GeschichtenundihreErklärung(Berlin2012:Suhrkamp), focuses on the problem of historical explanation and the underlying metaphysical problems vii viii Contributors Stuart Glennan is a professor of philosophy at Butler University in Indianapolis. HereceivedhisB.A.inphilosophyandmathematicsfromYaleUniversityandhis Ph.D.inphilosophyfromtheUniversityofChicago.Hisworkischieflyconcerned with explanation, causation, and modeling. He is a leading advocate of the new mechanicism in the philosophy of science. His publications include “Rethinking Mechanistic Explanation” (Philosophy of Science), “Ephemeral Mechanisms and Historical Explanation” (Erkenntnis), and “Mechanisms, Causes and the Layered ModeloftheWorld”(PhilosophyandPhenomenologicalResearch). Daniel Immerwahr is an assistant professor of history, specializing in twentieth- century US foreign relations, at Northwestern University. He received his B.A. from Columbia University, an additional B.A. from King’s College, Cambridge, andhisPh.D.fromtheUniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley.Hehasalsoservedasa postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought. His researchhasappearedinModernIntellectualHistory,theJournaloftheHistoryof Ideas,amongotherplaces. MarieI.KaiserisworkingasapostdocattheUniversityofGeneva,Switzerland. She has studied philosophy and biology at the University of Münster, Germany. In 2012, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Cologne, Germany, with a thesis on The Ontic Account of Explanatory Reduction in Biology. During her Ph.D. studies, she was a member of the DFG Research Group “Causation, Laws, Dispositions, and Explanation at the Intersection of Science and Metaphysics” and a visiting fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Minnesota, USA. Her main research interests are the philosophy of biology and thegeneralphilosophyofscience.Inparticular,herworkfocusesontheconceptof reductiveexplanationinbiology,mechanisms,biologicalparthood,causalmodeling in the life sciences, and philosophical issues raised by the sciences of complex systems. PhilipKitcheristheJohnDeweyProfessorofPhilosophyatColumbia.Heisthe authorofbooksonawiderangeoftopics,namely,thephilosophyofmathematics, the philosophy of biology, the growth of science, the role of science in society, Wagner’sRing,andJoyce’sFinnegansWake.In2011,hepublishedtwonewbooks: Science in a Democratic Society (Prometheus Books) and The Ethical Project (HarvardUniversityPress).Hiscollectionofessays,PreludestoPragmatism,was publishedinSeptember2012byOxfordUniversityPressandDeathsinVenice:The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach will appear from Columbia University Press in 2013. UlrichKrohsisaprofessorofphilosophyofscienceandofnatureattheUniversity of Münster. He has studied biochemistry and philosophy, received his Ph.D. in biologyattheTechnicalUniversityofAachenandhis“Habilitation”inphilosophy attheUniversityof Hamburg. Mostofhis presentresearchinterestsarelocated at theinterfaceofbothfields:philosophyandhistoryofscience;philosophyofnature and of technology; model theory; biomedical ethics; philosophy of cognition; and epistemology. Before moving to the University of Münster, he has taught at the Contributors ix universitiesofHamburg,Vienna,Bielefeld,andBern,andheldresearchfellowships at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research and at the UniversityofPittsburgh’sCenterforPhilosophyofScience. GerhardMüller-StrahlhasstudiedmedicineandphysiologyinAachenandParis, philosophyandmathematicsattheuniversitiesinGöttingen,Leipzig,andBochum. He has been practicing neurology in Lausanne (CHUV) and psychiatry in Witten- Herdecke.HehasbeenperformingbiorheologicresearchinLosAngeles(USC)and in Göttingen at the Max-Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, followed by apositionasresearchgroupleaderforcardiovascularphysiologyinLeipzigatthe Carl-LudwigInstitute.AttheuniversitiesinBochumandMünster,hisphilosophical researchhasbeenfocusedonconceptsoforganisms(eighteenththroughtwentieth centuries), on structure and change of physiological theories, on neo-Kantianism, and on contemporary theories of explanation and causation with special reference tothelifesciences. Daniel Plenge studied Geschichtswissenschaft (history, historiography, historical science, and science of history) and philosophy in Münster. He is a predoctoral research fellow at the Department of Philosophy at the Westfälische Wilhelms- UniversitätMünsterandamemberoftheDFGResearchGroup“Causation,Laws, Dispositions,andExplanationattheIntersectionofScienceandMetaphysics”. AlexanderReutlingerisapostdoctoralresearchfellowintheDFGResearchGroup “Causation,Laws,Dispositions,andExplanationattheIntersectionofScienceand Metaphysics”,andcurrentlyavisitingfellowattheCenterforPhilosophyofScience (University of Pittsburgh). He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne in 2011. His research interests lie within philosophy of science and metaphysics. He is particularly interested in semantic and metaphysical questions concerning causation, objective probabilities, and (ceteris paribus) laws in the social and life sciences and in physics. Fairly recently, he got interested in epistemological and metaphysicalaspectsofexplanation,laws,andemergenceincomplexsystems. Oliver R. Scholz is a professor of philosophy at the University of Münster, Ger- many, and a principal investigator in the DFG Research Group “Causation, Laws, Dispositions,andExplanationattheIntersectionofScienceandMetaphysics”.His researchinterestsincludeepistemology,metaphysics,andthephilosophyofscience. In recent years, he has focused on social epistemology (testimony; expertise), the philosophyofhistory,andthephilosophyofthesocialsciences.Heistheauthorof Bild,Darstellung,Zeichen(1991,3rdedition2009)andVerstehenundRationalität (1999,2ndedition2001),andhehaspublishedarticlesonmanytopics,interaliain Synthese,Erkenntnis,andGrazerPhilosophischeStudien. GerhardSchurzisaprofessorofphilosophyattheUniversityofDüsseldorf,where heholdsthechairoftheoreticalphilosophyandisheadoftheDCLPS(Düssseldorf Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science), which hosts four DFG research projects. His major areas of research are philosophy of science, epistemology, logic, cognitive science, and meta-ethics. Among his books are The Is-Ought
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