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Jay Odenbaugh [56]Jay Patrick Odenbaugh [1]
  1. Buyer beware: robustness analyses in economics and biology.Jay Odenbaugh & Anna Alexandrova - 2011 - Biology and Philosophy 26 (5):757-771.
    Theoretical biology and economics are remarkably similar in their reliance on mathematical models, which attempt to represent real world systems using many idealized assumptions. They are also similar in placing a great emphasis on derivational robustness of modeling results. Recently philosophers of biology and economics have argued that robustness analysis can be a method for confirmation of claims about causal mechanisms, despite the significant reliance of these models on patently false assumptions. We argue that the power of robustness analysis has (...)
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  2. (1 other version)Complex systems, trade‐offs, and theoretical population biology: Richard Levin's “strategy of model building in population biology” revisited.Jay Odenbaugh - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (5):1496-1507.
    Ecologist Richard Levins argues population biologists must trade‐off the generality, realism, and precision of their models since biological systems are complex and our limitations are severe. Steven Orzack and Elliott Sober argue that there are cases where these model properties cannot be varied independently of one another. If this is correct, then Levins's thesis that there is a necessary trade‐off between generality, precision, and realism in mathematical models in biology is false. I argue that Orzack and Sober's arguments fail since (...)
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  3. (1 other version)Seeing the forest and the trees: Realism about communities and ecosystems.Jay Odenbaugh - 2007 - Philosophy of Science 74 (5):628-641.
    In this essay I first provide an analysis of various community concepts. Second, I evaluate two of the most serious challenges to the existence of communities—gradient and paleoecological analysis respectively—arguing that, properly understood, neither threatens the existence of communities construed interactively. Finally, I apply the same interactive approach to ecosystem ecology, arguing that ecosystems may exist robustly as well. ‡I would like to thank to the participants at the Ecology and Environmental Ethics Conference at the University of Utah, the Philosophy (...)
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  4. True Lies: Realism, Robustness, and Models.Jay Odenbaugh - 2011 - Philosophy of Science 78 (5):1177-1188.
    In this essay, I argue that uneliminated idealizations pose a serious problem for scientific realism. I consider one method for “de-idealizing” models—robustness analysis. However, I argue that unless idealizations are eliminated from an idealized theory and robustness analysis need not do that, scientists are not justified in believing that the theory is true. I consider one example of modeling from the biological sciences that exemplifies the problem.
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  5. Philosophical issues in ecology: Recent trends and future directions.Mark Colyvan, William Grey, Paul E. Griffiths, Jay Odenbaugh, Stefan Linquist & Hugh P. Possingham - 2009 - Ecology and Society 14 (2).
    Philosophy of ecology has been slow to become established as an area of philosophical interest, but it is now receiving considerable attention. This area holds great promise for the advancement of both ecology and the philosophy of science. Insights from the philosophy of science can advance ecology in a number of ways. For example, philosophy can assist with the development of improved models of ecological hypothesis testing and theory choice. Philosophy can also help ecologists understand the role and limitations of (...)
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  6. The strategy of “the strategy of model building in population biology”.Jay Odenbaugh - 2006 - Biology and Philosophy 21 (5):607-621.
    In this essay, I argue for four related claims. First, Richard Levins’ classic “The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology” was a statement and defense of theoretical population biology growing out of collaborations between Robert MacArthur, Richard Lewontin, E. O. Wilson, and others. Second, I argue that the essay served as a response to the rise of systems ecology especially as pioneered by Kenneth Watt. Third, the arguments offered by Levins against systems ecology and in favor of his own (...)
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  7. Values, Advocacy and Conservation Biology.Jay Odenbaugh - 2003 - Environmental Values 12 (1):55 - 69.
    In this essay, I examine the controversy concerning the advocacy of ethical values in conservation biology. First, I argue, as others have, that conservation biology is a science laden with values both ethical and non-ethical. Second, after clarifying the notion of advocacy at work, I contend that conservation biologists should advocate the preservation of biological diversity. Third, I explore what ethical grounds should be used for advocating the preservation of ecological systems by conservation biologists. I argue that conservation biologists should (...)
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  8. Nothing in ethics makes sense except in the light of evolution? Natural goodness, normativity, and naturalism.Jay Odenbaugh - 2017 - Synthese 194 (4):1031-1055.
    Foot , Hursthouse , and Thompson , along with other philosophers, have argued for a metaethical position, the natural goodness approach, that claims moral judgments are, or are on a par with, teleological claims made in the biological sciences. Specifically, an organism’s flourishing is characterized by how well they function as specified by the species to which they belong. In this essay, I first sketch the Neo-Aristotelian natural goodness approach. Second, I argue that critics who claim that this sort of (...)
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  9.  37
    Biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and the environmentalist agenda.Jay Odenbaugh - 2020 - Biology and Philosophy 35 (1):1-11.
    Jonathan Newman, Gary Varner, and Stefan Linquist’s Defending Biodiversity: Environmental Science and Ethics is a critical examination of a panoply of arguments for conserving biodiversity. Their discussion is extremely impressive though I think one can push back on some of their criticisms. In this essay, I consider their criticisms of the argument for conserving biodiversity based on ecosystem services; specifically, ecosystem functioning. In the end, I try to clarify and defend this argument against their criticisms.
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  10. Philosophy of Biology.Andrew Hamilton, Samir Okasha & Jay Odenbaugh - 2010-01-04 - In Fritz Allhoff (ed.), Philosophies of the Sciences. Wiley‐Blackwell. pp. 184–212.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction What Are the Biological Sciences (Not)? Systematics Ecology and Evolution Levels of Selection Conclusion References.
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  11. Models in biology.Jay Odenbaugh - 2009 - Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
    In recent years, there has much attention given by philosophers to the ubiquitous role of models and modeling in the biological sciences. Philosophical debates has focused on several areas of discussion. First, what are models in the biological sciences? The term ‘model’ is applied to mathematical structures, graphical displays, computer simulations, and even concrete organisms. Is there an account which unifies these disparate structures? Second, scientists routinely distinguish between theories and models; however, this distinction is more difficult to draw in (...)
     
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  12.  84
    Semblance or similarity? Reflections on Simulation and Similarity: Michael Weisberg: Simulation and similarity: using models to understand the world. Oxford University Press, 2013. 224pp. ISBN 9780199933662, $65.00.Jay Odenbaugh - 2015 - Biology and Philosophy 30 (2):277-291.
    In this essay, I critically evaluate components of Michael Weisberg’s approach to models and modeling in his book Simulation and Similarity. First, I criticize his account of the ontology of models and mathematics. Second, I respond to his objections to fictionalism regarding models arguing that they fail. Third, I sketch a deflationary approach to models that retains many elements of his account but avoids the inflationary commitments.
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  13.  57
    Owl vs Owl: Examining an Environmental Moral Tragedy.Jay Odenbaugh - 2022 - Philosophia 50 (5):2303-2317.
    In the United States, the northern spotted owl has declined throughout the Pacific Northwest even though its habitat has been protected under the Endangered Species Act. The main culprit for this decline is the likely human-facilitated invasion of the barred owl. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service conducted an experiment in which they lethally removed the barred owls from selected areas in Washington, Oregon, and California. In those locations, the northern spotted owl populations have stabilized and increased. Some have (...)
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  14. Message in the Bottle: The Constraints of Experimentation on Model Building.Jay Odenbaugh - 2006 - Philosophy of Science 73 (5):720-729.
    Some ecologists have argued that theoretical model building in population and community ecology has gone evidentially unconstrained. In the essay, I argue that "bottle experiments" offer ecological model building evidential constraints and illustrate this by considering work on chaotic models tested by the dynamics of flour beetles. Critics reply that these experiments are importantly unlike nonmanipulated natural systems and thus do not constitute genuine tests of the models. I conclude by considering two responses to this worry and a suggestion on (...)
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  15. Ecological Stability, Model Building, and Environmental Policy: A Reply to Some of the Pessimism.Jay Odenbaugh - 2001 - Philosophy of Science 68 (3):S493-.
    Recently, there has been a rise in pessimism concerning what theoretical ecology can offer conservation biologists in the formation of reasonable environmental policies. In this paper, I look at one of the pessimistic arguments offered by Kristin Shrader-Frechette and E. D. McCoy (1993, 1994)--the argument from conceptual imprecision. I suggest that their argument rests on an inadequate account of the concepts of ecological stability and that there has been conceptual progress with respect to complexity-stability hypotheses. Such progress, I maintain, can (...)
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  16.  21
    Ecological Models.Jay Odenbaugh - 2019 - Cambridge University Press.
    In this book, we consider three questions. What are ecological models? How are they tested? How do ecological models inform environmental policy and politics? Through several case studies, we see how these representations which idealize and abstract can be used to explain and predict complicated ecological systems. Additionally, we see how they bear on environmental policy and politics.
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  17. The “structure” of population ecology: Philosophical reflections on unstructured and structured models.Jay Odenbaugh - manuscript
    In 1974, John Maynard Smith wrote in his little book Models in Ecology, A theory of ecology must make statements about ecosystems as a whole, as well as about particular species at particular times, and it must make statements that are true for many species and not just for one… For the discovery of general ideas in ecology, therefore, different kinds of mathematical description, which may be called models, are called for. Whereas a good simulation should include as much detail (...)
     
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  18. Struggling with the science of ecology.Jay Odenbaugh - 2006 - Biology and Philosophy 21 (3):395-409.
    Greg Cooper’s The Science of the Struggle for Existence is a must read for those interested in the history and philosophy of ecology and in topics like laws of nature, scientific explanation, and mathematical modeling. If you want to explore some of the metaphysical and methodological challenges that face ecology, there is no better place to go. Thus, this book marks an important moment in the philosophy of ecology. Folks like myself will be responding to it for quite a while. (...)
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  19.  52
    Models, models, models: a deflationary view.Jay Odenbaugh - 2018 - Synthese 198 (Suppl 21):1-16.
    In this essay, I first consider a popular view of models and modeling, the similarity view. Second, I contend that arguments for it fail and it suffers from what I call “Hughes’ worry.” Third, I offer a deflationary approach to models and modeling that avoids Hughes’ worry and shows how scientific representations are of apiece with other types of representations. Finally, I consider an objection that the similarity view can deal with approximations better than the deflationary view and show that (...)
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  20. Functional diversity: An epistemic roadmap.Christophe Malaterre, Antoine C. Dussault, Sophia Rousseau-Mermans, Gillian Barker, Beatrix E. Beisner, Frédéric Bouchard, Eric Desjardins, Tanya I. Handa, Steven W. Kembel, Geneviève Lajoie, Virginie Maris, Alison D. Munson, Jay Odenbaugh, Timothée Poisot, B. Jesse Shapiro & Curtis A. Suttle - 2019 - BioScience 10 (69):800-811.
    Functional diversity holds the promise of understanding ecosystems in ways unattainable by taxonomic diversity studies. Underlying this promise is the intuition that investigating the diversity of what organisms actually do—i.e. their functional traits—within ecosystems will generate more reliable insights into the ways these ecosystems behave, compared to considering only species diversity. But this promise also rests on several conceptual and methodological—i.e. epistemic—assumptions that cut across various theories and domains of ecology. These assumptions should be clearly addressed, notably for the sake (...)
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  21.  22
    Building Trust, Removing Doubt? Robustness Analysis and Climate Modeling.Jay Odenbaugh - 2018 - In Elisabeth A. Lloyd & Eric Winsberg (eds.), Climate Modelling: Philosophical and Conceptual Issues. Springer Verlag. pp. 297-321.
    In this chapter, Odenbaugh first provides a conceptual framework for thinking about climate modeling, specifically focused on general circulation models. Second, he considers what makes models independent of one another. Third, he shows robustness analysis, which depends on models being independent of one another, can be used to remove doubts about idealizations in general climate models. Finally, he considers a dilemma for robustness analysis; namely, it leads to either an infinite regress of idealizations or a complete removal of idealizations. A (...)
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  22. Ecology and the inescapability of values.Jay Odenbaugh - 2008 - Science and Engineering Ethics 14 (4):593-596.
  23.  19
    Philosophical themes in the work of Robert H. Macarthur.Jay Odenbaugh - 2011 - In Kevin deLaplante, Bryson Brown & Kent A. Peacock (eds.), Philosophy of ecology. Waltham, MA: North-Holland. pp. 11--109.
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  24. (1 other version)Philosophy of the environmental sciences.Jay Odenbaugh - 2009 - In P. D. Magnus & Jacob Busch (eds.), New waves in philosophy of science. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 155--171.
    In this essay, I consider three philosophical issues that arise in the environmental sciences. First, these sciences depend on mathematical models and simulations which are highly idealized and are coupled with very uncertain data. Why should we trust these models and simulations? Second, in standard hypothesis testing, the burden of proof is in favor of the null hypothesis which claims some causal factor has no effect. The alternative hypothesis is accepted only when the likelihood of the null hypothesis is very (...)
     
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  25. What isn't wrong with ecosystem ecology.Jay Odenbaugh - unknown
    Philosophers of the life sciences have devoted considerably more attention to evolutionary theory and genetics than to the various sub-disciplines of ecology, but recent work in the philosophy of ecology suggests reflects a growing interest in this area (Cooper 2003; Ginzburg and Colyvan 2004). However, philosophers of biology and ecology have focused almost entirely on conceptual and methodological issues in population and community ecology; conspicuously absent are foundational investigations in ecosystem ecology. This situation is regrettable. Ecosystem concepts play a central (...)
     
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  26.  78
    This American Life.Jay Odenbaugh - 2011 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 14 (1):27-29.
    Given the complexity of John Nolt's overall argument, I summarise it at the outset. First, focusing on the mean emissions of the United States, ignoring the ‘porousness’ of nations, an...
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  27.  26
    Functions in Ecosystem Ecology.Jay Odenbaugh - 2019 - Philosophical Topics 47 (1):167-180.
    In this essay, I argue that the selected effects approach to ecosystem functions is inadequate and defend the adequacy of the systemic capacity account. I additionally argue that rival persistence enhancing and organizational approaches face serious problems when applied to ecosystem ecology. Lastly, I explore how the systemic capacity approach applies to recent experimental work on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
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  28.  41
    The Edges and Boundaries of Biological Objects.Jay Odenbaugh & Matt H. Haber - 2009 - Biological Theory 4 (3):219-224.
  29. Philosophy of biology.Jay Odenbaugh, Matt Haber, Andrew Hamilton & and Samir Okasha - manuscript
    Philosophy of the Special Sciences, edited by Fritz Allhof, Blackwell Press.
     
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  30. A philosophy for biodiversity?Jay Odenbaugh - manuscript
    Sahotra Sarkar’s Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy is a welcome addition to the fields of environmental philosophy and the philosophy of science. First, his book has a rigorous and careful discussion of why we should preserve biodiversity. This is all the more important since much of environmental ethics has rested on normative claims which are unclear in meaning, appear unjustified at best and unjustifiable at worst, and are politically ineffective. Second, Sarkar is at home in the science of conservation biology and (...)
     
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  31. Idealized, inaccurate but successful: A pragmatic approach to evaluating models in theoretical ecology. [REVIEW]Jay Odenbaugh - 2005 - Biology and Philosophy 20 (2-3):231-255.
    Ecologists attempt to understand the diversity of life with mathematical models. Often, mathematical models contain simplifying idealizations designed to cope with the blooming, buzzing confusion of the natural world. This strategy frequently issues in models whose predictions are inaccurate. Critics of theoretical ecology argue that only predictively accurate models are successful and contribute to the applied work of conservation biologists. Hence, they think that much of the mathematical work of ecologists is poor science. Against this view, I argue that model (...)
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  32. A field guide to the philosophy of ecology.Mark Colyvan, William Grey, Jay Odenbaugh & Stefan Linquist - unknown
    Philosophical interest in ecology is relatively new. Standard texts in the philosophy of biology pay little or no attention to ecology (though Sterelny and Griffiths 1999 is an exception). This is in part because the science of ecology itself is relatively new, but whatever the reasons for the neglect in the past, the situation must change. A good philosophical understanding of ecology is important for a number of reasons. First, ecology is an important and fascinating branch of biology with distinctive (...)
     
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  33.  33
    Rethinking Wilderness.Jay Odenbaugh - 2017 - Environmental Ethics 39 (4):459-460.
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  34.  71
    Subsistence versus Sustainable Emissions? Equity and Climate Change.Jay Odenbaugh - 2010 - Environmental Philosophy 7 (1):1-15.
    In this essay, I first consider what the implications of global climate change will be regarding issues of equity. Secondly, I consider two types of proposals which focus on sustainable emissions and subsistence rights respectively. Thirdly, I consider where these proposal types conflict. Lastly, I argue under plausible assumptions, these two proposals actually imply similar policies regarding global climate change.
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  35.  26
    An even better ape? Comments on a better ape.Jay Odenbaugh - 2023 - Biology and Philosophy 38 (4):1-5.
    Richmond Campbell and Victor Kumar’s _A Better Ape_ is very plausible accout of how the “moral mind” evolved. In my commentary, I raise questions and objections regarding their views on the units of selection, the emotions, the intrinsic motivation of moral norms, and the nature of moral progress.
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  36.  83
    Sahotra Sarkar, biodiversity and environmental philosophy: An introduction.Jay Odenbaugh - 2009 - Biology and Philosophy 24 (4):541-550.
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  37. Why ecosystems need not be social constructed (though their health may be).Jay Odenbaugh - manuscript
     
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  38.  12
    (1 other version)Models.Jay Odenbaugh - 2008 - In Sahorta Sarkar & Anya Plutynski (eds.), Companion to the Philosophy of Biology. Blackwell. pp. 506–524.
    This chapter contains section titled: Itroduction The Received (Syntactic) View of Theories Models and Analogies The Semantic View of Theories Models as Mediators Material Models Conclusion References.
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  39.  54
    Nothing in Ethics Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution? Natural Goodness and Evolutionary Biology.Jay Odenbaugh - unknown
    Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse, along with other philosophers, have argued for a metaethical position, the natural goodness approach, that claims moral evaluations are, or are on a par with, teleological claims made in the biological sciences. Specifically, an organism’s flourishing is characterized by how well they function as specified by the species to which they belong. In this essay, I first sketch the Neo-Aristotelian natural goodness approach. Second, I argue that critics who claim that this sort of approach is (...)
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  40. A general, unifying theory of ecology?Jay Odenbaugh - 2011 - In Samuel M. Scheiner & Michael R. Willig (eds.), The theory of ecology. London: University of Chicago Press.
  41.  50
    Environmental philosophy 2.0: Ethics and conservation biology for the 21st century.Jay Odenbaugh - 2014 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 45 (1):92-96.
    In this essay, I critically engage Sahotra Sarkar’s Environmental Philosophy. The several topics include the conceptual foundations of conservation biology and traditional philosophy of science, naturalism and its implications, and ethical theory and specifically the status of human welfare.
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  42.  48
    Human Nature, Anthropology, and the Problem of Variation.Jay Odenbaugh - unknown
    In this essay, I begin with an overview of a traditional account of natural kinds, and then consider David Hull's critique of species as natural kinds and the associated notion of human nature. Second, I explore recent "liberal" accounts of human nature provided by Edouard Machery and Grant Ramsey and criticized by Tim Lewens. They attempt to avoid the criticisms of- fered by Hull. After examining those views, I turn to Richard Boyd's Homeostatic Property Cluster account of natural kinds which (...)
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  43.  26
    Maria Kronfeldner. What’s Left of Human Nature? A Post-essentialist, Pluralist, and Interactive Account of a Contested Concept.Jay Odenbaugh - 2021 - Philosophy of Science 88 (3):562-567.
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    (1 other version)On the Contrary: How to Think about Climate Communication.Jay Odenbaugh - unknown
    Dr. Jay Odenbaugh discusses psychological issues concerning American opinion on the topic of climate control, the relevance or irrelevance of scientific literacy to climate skepticism, and the role of affect and cognitive biases in environmental decision-making. He considers climate communication and how we might most effectively motivate pro-environmental behavior and beliefs. The discussion ends with a case study for persuading individuals on both sides of the political aisle for taking global climate change seriously.
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  45. Pessimism about Ecosystem Ecology: A Reply to Sagoff.Jay Odenbaugh - forthcoming - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.
     
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  46.  22
    L ucas M c G ranahan, Darwinism and Pragmatism: William James on Evolution and Self - Transformation, 2017, Routledge, 200 pp., $160.00. [REVIEW]Jay Odenbaugh - 2019 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 41 (2):23.
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    Sahotra Sarkar, Environmental Philosophy: From Theory to Practice. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell , xii+226 pp., $96.95. [REVIEW]Jay Odenbaugh - 2014 - Philosophy of Science 81 (2):292-296.