Editors:
- Provides comprehensive overview on biological and historical explanation methods
- Offers new insights to the debate on the mechanisms in the sciences
- Includes special section on the bridging of history and biology, in particular of historical and biological explanation
Part of the book series: Synthese Library (SYLI, volume 367)
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Table of contents (16 chapters)
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Front Matter
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General Issues on Explanation
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Front Matter
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Explanation in the Biological Sciences
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Front Matter
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Explanation in the Historical Sciences
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Front Matter
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Bridging the Two Disciplines
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Front Matter
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About this book
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.
Editors and Affiliations
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Philosophisches Seminar, Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany
Marie I. Kaiser, Andreas Hüttemann
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Philosophisches Seminar, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany
Oliver R. Scholz, Daniel Plenge
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Explanation in the Special Sciences
Book Subtitle: The Case of Biology and History
Editors: Marie I. Kaiser, Oliver R. Scholz, Daniel Plenge, Andreas Hüttemann
Series Title: Synthese Library
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7563-3
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-007-7562-6Published: 13 December 2013
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-024-0657-3Published: 18 September 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-7563-3Published: 29 November 2013
Series ISSN: 0166-6991
Series E-ISSN: 2542-8292
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 366
Number of Illustrations: 25 b/w illustrations
Topics: Philosophy of Biology, History of Science, Philosophy of Science