The plaza and the pendulum: two concepts of ecological science

Biology and Philosophy 18 (4):529-552 (2003)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This essay explores two strategies of inquiryin ecological science. Ecologists may regardthe sites they study either as contingentcollections of plants and animals, therelations of which are place-specific andidiosyncratic, or as structured systems andcommunites that are governed by general rules,forces, or principles. Ecologists who take thefirst approach rely on observation, induction,and experiment – a case-study or historicalmethod – to determine the causes of particularevents. Ecologists who take the secondapproach, seeking to explain by inferringevents from general patterns or principles,confront four conceptual obstacles which thisessay describes. Theory in ecology must (1)define and classify the object it studies,e.g., the ecosystem, and thus determine theconditions under which it remains the ``same''system through time and change. Ecologistsmust (2) find ways to reject as well as tocreate mathematical models of the ecosystem,possibly by (3) identifying efficient causes ofecosystem organization or design. Finally,ecologists will (4) show ecological theory canhelp solve environmental problems both inpristine and in human-dominated systems. Afailure to solve – or even to address – theseobstacles suggests that theoretical ecology maybecome a formal science that studies themathematical consequences of assumptionswithout regard to the relation of theseassumptions to the world.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

A pendulum-photochronograph.R. Dodge - 1926 - Journal of Experimental Psychology 9 (2):155.
Fact and value in ecological science.Mark Sagoff - 1985 - Environmental Ethics 7 (2):99-116.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
47 (#299,016)

6 months
4 (#320,252)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

Theoretical ecology as etiological from the start.Justin Donhauser - 2016 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 60:67-76.
Does environmental science crowd out non-epistemic values?Kinley Gillette, Stephen Andrew Inkpen & C. Tyler DesRoches - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 87 (C):81-92.

View all 6 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy.Bertrand Russell - 1919 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 89:465-466.
Wonderful Life; The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History.Stephen Jay Gould - 1992 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 23 (2):359-360.
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History.Stephen Jay Gould - 1991 - Journal of the History of Biology 24 (1):163-165.
Pragmatism.W. James & F. C. S. Schiller - 1907 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 15 (5):19-19.
The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory.Robert P. Mcintosh - 1986 - Journal of the History of Biology 19 (2):314-316.

View all 11 references / Add more references