2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

PSA Abstracts
to some science, then, and anti-reductionists with respect to ecology have
treated ecology as not being reductive. This position is contradicted, however,
by some ecologists view of their own work as reductive. Recognizing this
tension, I illustrate three kinds of reductive research strategies which ecologists
have made use of in developing models.
Kevin Elliott University of Notre Dame
Chemical Hormesis: Assessing the Warrant for Policy-Driven Science
This paper examines the epistemological warrant for a toxicological phenomenon
known as chemical hormesis, which may have significant implications for public
policy. Section II argues that conceptual confusion about the nature of chemical
hormesis contributes significantly to current disagreements about the status of
chemical hormesis as a biological hypothesis. Section III provides an analysis of
seven distinct (though not mutually exclusive) concepts of chemical hormesis and
argues that none of them are completely satisfactory. Section IV argues that the
conceptual clarification performed in section III suggests at least three ramifications
for ongoing debates about the epistemological status of chemical hormesis.
Marc Ereshefsky Department of Philosophy
Linnaean Ranks: Vestiges of a Bygone Era
We tend to think that there are different types of biological taxa: some taxa are
species, others are genera, while others are families. Linnaeus gave us his
ranks in 1731. Needless to say, biological theory has changed since Linnaeus’s
time. Creationism and essentialism have given way to evolutionary theory
and classifications based on genealogical relations. Nevertheless, the vast
majority of biologists still assign Linnaean ranks to taxa even though that
practice is at odds contemporary theory. Furthermore, the assignment of
Linnaean ranks causes a number of practical problems, including needless
arguments over the ranks of taxa as well as avoidable semantic confusions.
The Linnaean ranks should be abandoned and alternative methods for
displaying the hierarchical relations of taxa should be adopted.
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Don Fallis University of Arizona
Measures of Epistemic Utility and the Value of Experiments
Measures of epistemic utility have been used to model the epistemic decisions
of truth seekers in general and scientists in particular. (See, for example, Levi’s