Ian M Hacking Green, Andrew
The Lancet (British edition),
07/2023, Letnik:
402, Številka:
10398
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In two groundbreaking books—The Emergence of Probability (1975) and The Taming of Chance (1990)—he “shows how they arose in the history of thought and what a tremendous difference they made on how we ...think about everything”, Misak said. Hacking moved to Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, USA, in 1974 as a Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, where he cultivated his interest in experimental physics. There he maintained his interest in classification, turning his attention to thinking about categorisations of human beings.
According to an adequacy-for-purpose view, models should be assessed with respect to their adequacy or fitness for particular purposes. Such a view has been advocated by scientists and philosophers ...alike. Important details, however, have yet to be spelled out. This article attempts to make progress by addressing three key questions: What does it mean for a model to be adequate-for-purpose? What makes a model adequate-for-purpose? How does assessing a model’s adequacy-for-purpose differ from assessing its representational accuracy? In addition, responses are given to some objections that might be raised against an adequacy-for-purpose view.
An Organizational Account of Biological Functions Mossio, Matteo; Saborido, Cristian; Moreno, Alvaro
The British journal for the philosophy of science,
12/2009, Letnik:
60, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In this paper, we develop an organizational account that defines biological functions as causal relations subject to closure in living systems, interpreted as the most typical example of ...organizationally closed and differentiated self-maintaining systems. We argue that this account adequately grounds the teleological and normative dimensions of functions in the current organization of a system, insofar as it provides an explanation for the existence of the function bearer and, at the same time, identifies in a non-arbitrary way the norms that functions are supposed to obey. Accordingly, we suggest that the organizational account combines the etiological and dispositional perspectives in an integrated theoretical framework. Introduction Dispositional Approaches Etiological Theories Biological Self-maintenance 4.1Closure, teleology, and normativity 4.2Organizational differentiation Functions 5.1C1: Contributing to the maintenance of the organization 5.2C2: Producing the functional trait Implications and Objections 6.1Functional versus useful 6.2Dysfunctions, side effects, and accidental contributions 6.3Proper functions and selected effects 6.4Reproduction 6.5Relation with other ‘unitarian’ approaches Conclusions
The ocean and its biodiversity have been attracting increasing interest from a humanities perspective over the last decades. The book Elusive Partners aims to provide a valuable insight into this ...research work on marine species, with a specific focus on the French-speaking world. Taking its inspiration from an interdisciplinary dialogue developed over several years at the National Museum of Natural History (Paris), this book highlights the need for comparative and long-term research on the most contemporary issues associated with marine species, particularly those related to conservation policies. Algae, cetaceans, seabirds, pinnipeds, turtles, corals and fish, but also more unexpected travellers —such as elephants or mice— compose a bestiary whose versatility and social, historical and political import are fully restored.
The debate about the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence dates from the 1960s (Samuel in Science, 132(3429):741–742, 1960.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.132.3429.741
; Wiener in ...Cybernetics: or control and communication in the animal and the machine, MIT Press, New York, 1961). However, in recent years symbolic AI has been complemented and sometimes replaced by (Deep) Neural Networks and Machine Learning (ML) techniques. This has vastly increased its potential utility and impact on society, with the consequence that the ethical debate has gone mainstream. Such a debate has primarily focused on principles—the ‘what’ of AI ethics (beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice and explicability)—rather than on practices, the ‘how.’ Awareness of the potential issues is increasing at a fast rate, but the AI community’s ability to take action to mitigate the associated risks is still at its infancy. Our intention in presenting this research is to contribute to closing the gap between principles and practices by constructing a typology that may help practically-minded developers apply ethics at each stage of the Machine Learning development pipeline, and to signal to researchers where further work is needed. The focus is exclusively on Machine Learning, but it is hoped that the results of this research may be easily applicable to other branches of AI. The article outlines the research method for creating this typology, the initial findings, and provides a summary of future research needs.
The complex societal challenges of the twenty-first Century require scientific researchers and academically educated professionals capable of conducting scientific research in complex problem ...contexts. Our central claim is that educational approaches inspired by a traditional empiricist epistemology insufficiently foster the required deep conceptual understanding and higher-order thinking skills necessary for epistemic tasks in scientific research. Conversely, we argue that constructivist epistemologies (developed in the philosophy of science in practice) provide better guidance to educational approaches to promote research skills. We also argue that teachers adopting a
constructivist learning theory
do not necessarily embrace a
constructivist epistemology
. On the contrary, in educational practice, novel educational approaches that adopt constructivist learning theories (e.g., project-based learning, PjBL) often maintain traditional empiricist epistemologies. Philosophers of science can help develop educational designs focused on learning to conduct scientific research, combining constructivist learning theory with constructivist epistemology. We illustrate this by an example from a bachelor’s program in Biomedical Engineering, where we introduce conceptual models and modeling as an alternative to the traditional focus on hypothesis testing in conducting scientific research. This educational approach includes the so-called B&K method for (re-)constructing scientific models to scaffold teaching and learning conceptual modeling.
Since the late twentieth century, “citizen science” has become an increasingly fashionable label for a growing number of participatory research activities. This paper situates the origins and rise ...of the term “citizen science” and contextualises “citizen science” within the broader history of public participation in science. It analyses critically the current promises — democratisation, education, discoveries — emerging within the “citizen science” discourse and offers a new framework to better understand the diversity of epistemic practices involved in these participatory projects. Finally, it maps a number of historical, political, and social questions for future research in the critical studies of “citizen science”.
PDF
