The Dynamics of Science: Computational Frontiers in History and Philosophy of Science

by Grant Ramsey (Editor), Andreas De Block (Editor)

Overview

Millions of scientific articles are published each year, making it difficult to stay abreast of advances within even the smallest subdisciplines. Traditional approaches to the study of science, such as the history and philosophy of science, involve closely reading a relatively small set of journal articles. And yet many questions benefit from casting a wider net: Is most scientific change gradual or revolutionary? What are the key sources of scientific novelty? Over the past several decades, a massive effort to digitize the academic literature and equip computers with algorithms that can distantly read and analyze a digital database has taken us one step closer to answering these questions. The Dynamics of Science brings together a diverse array of contributors to examine the largely unexplored computational frontiers of history and philosophy of science. Together, they reveal how tools and data from automated textual analysis, or machine “reading,” combined with methods and models from game theory and cultural evolutionary theory, can begin to answer fundamental questions about the nature and history of science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822989097
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	12/06/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Grant Ramsey (Editor)
Grant Ramsey is a research professor at the Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, Belgium. His work centers on philosophical problems at the foundation of evolutionary biology. He runs the Ramsey Lab, a highly collaborative research group focused on issues in the philosophy of the life sciences.

Andreas De Block (Editor)
Andreas De Block is a professor at the Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, Belgium. His current research interests revolve around philosophy of sex, science, and values, and experimental philosophy of medicine. He likes to collaborate with researchers from other disciplines, and has published with legal scholars, psychologists, economists, sport scientists, and biologists.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. Tools, Tests, and Data: An Introduction to the New History and Philosophy of Science | Andreas De Block and Grant Ramsey Part I. Toward a New Logic of Scientific Discovery, Creativity, and Progress 1. Five Models of Science, Illustrating How Selection Shapes Methods | Paul E. Smaldino 2. Pooling with the Best | Justin Bruner and Bennett Holman 3. Promoting Diverse Collaborations | Mike D. Schneider, Hannah Rubin, and Cailin O’Connor 4. Using Phylomemies to Investigate the Dynamics of Science | David Chavalarias, Philippe Huneman, and Thibault Racovski Part II. Frontiers in Tools, Methods, and Models 5. LDA Topic Modeling: Contexts for the History and Philosophy of Science | Colin Allen and Jaimie Murdock 6. The Potential of Supervised Machine Learning for the Study of Science | Krist Vaesen 7. Help with Data Management for the Novice and Experienced Alike | Steve Elliott, Kate MacCord, and Jane Maienschein Part III. Case Studies 8. How Not to Fight about Theory: The Debate between Biometry and Mendelism in Nature, 1890–1915 | Charles H. Pence 9. Topic Modeling in HPS: Investigating Engaged Philosophy of Science throughout the Twentieth Century | Christophe Malaterre, Jean-François Chartier, and Davide Pulizzotto 10. Bolzano, Kant, and the Traditional Theory of Concepts: A Computational Investigation | Annapaola Ginammi, Rob Koopman, Shenghui Wang, Jelke Bloem, and Arianna Betti 11. The Evolution of Evolutionary Medicine | Deryc T. Painter, Julia Damerow, and Manfred D. Laubichler Notes References Contributors Index

Editorial Reviews

Dynamics of Science makes a convincing case that historians should consider applying their deep reading skills to much larger sets of text than they have previously thought possible. However, to do so, they may have to learn new skills or, better yet, collaborate with colleagues who have different backgrounds so that they can incorporate computational methods in their work.

H-Net Reviews

A valuable advancement in bridging the gap between philosophy of science and quantitative studies of science.

Metascience

A revolution is brewing in the discipline of history and philosophy of science, and it is easy to foresee a near future in which computational methods will be as important to the historian and philosopher of science as historical case studies are nowadays. If you don’t want to miss the revolution, Grant Ramsey and Andreas De Block’s groundbreaking volume is a must-read: its eleven chapters by an all-star cast will show you the promises of this new approach.

Edouard Machery

This is a valuable volume that . . . reveals a new field full of potential.

British Journal for the History of Science

“A revolution is brewing in the discipline of history and philosophy of science, and it is easy to foresee a near future in which computational methods will be as important to the historian and philosopher of science as historical case studies are nowadays. If you don’t want to miss the revolution, Grant Ramsey and Andreas De Block’s groundbreaking volume is a must-read: its eleven chapters by an all-star cast will show you the promises of this new approach.” —Edouard Machery, University of Pittsburgh

"A valuable advancement in bridging the gap between philosophy of science and quantitative studies of science."
—Metascience
 

"This is a valuable volume that . . . reveals a new field full of potential."
—British Journal for the History of Science

From the Publisher