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Schaffner's Model of Theory Reduction: Critique and Reconstruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Rasmus Gr⊘nfeldt Winther
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Abstract

Schaffner's model of theory reduction has played an important role in philosophy of science and philosophy of biology. Here, the model is found to be problematic because of an internal tension. Indeed, standard antireductionist external criticisms concerning reduction functions and laws in biology do not provide a full picture of the limits of Schaffner's model. However, despite the internal tension, his model usefully highlights the importance of regulative ideals associated with the search for derivational, and embedding, deductive relations among mathematical structures in theoretical biology. A reconstructed Schaffnerian model could therefore shed light on mathematical theory development in the biological sciences and on the epistemology of mathematical practices more generally.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 119 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I gratefully acknowledge the suggestions on earlier drafts provided by Elena Álvarez-Buylla, Michael Dickson, Paul Griffiths, David Hull, Alan Love, Sergio Martínez, Fabrizzio Guerrero McManus, Yuriditzi Pascacio, Alexander Rosenberg, Kenneth Schaffner, Kenneth Waters, and two anonymous reviewers. This research was funded in part by a faculty research grant from the Academic Senate Committee on Research, University of California, Santa Cruz.

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