2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

PSA Abstracts
like the move from geometric to algebraic representation, and the hesitant
acceptance of Newton’s metaphysical concept of force.
Kristen Intemann University of Washington
Science and Values: Are Value Judgements Always Irrelevant to the
Justification of Scientific Claims?
Several feminist theorists have claimed that feminist values ought to influence
theory choice. Susan Haack has argued that this is implausible because normative
claims about what ought to be the case can never provide justification for
descriptive claims. I argue against one of the premises of Haack’s argument.
Furthermore, I attempt to show that the most promising defense of this premise
would cast doubt on a second premise of Haack’s argument. My aim is to open
up the possibility that value judgments can play a legitimate role in theory choice.
Tetsuji Iseda Nagoya University
Bridging a Gap Between Naturalistic and Traditional Approaches in the
Philosophy of Science
There seems to be a lack of mutual understanding between naturalistically
oriented philosophers and more traditional philosophers in the philosophy of
science. This paper attempts to bridge the gap between these two orientations
by introducing a conceptual framework: a distinction between action-guiding
rules and evaluative principles. To make the argument concrete, I examine
exchanges between Frederick Suppe and Bayesians over Suppe’s interpretation
of W.J. Morgan’s plate tectonics paper. Through a re-analysis of the Morgan
paper, I conclude that Suppe’s account through the special reasons requirement
can be made compatible with a Bayesian account, though not quite in the way
Bayesians themselves argue.
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Jonathan␣ Michael Kaplan University of Tennessee
Historical Evidence and Human Adaptations
Phylogenetic information is often necessary to distinguish between competing
evolutionary scenarios. Recently, evolutionary psychology has acknowledged
this, and has claimed that such evidence can be and has been brought to bear on
adaptive hypotheses involving complex human traits. If this were possible, it
would be a valuable source of possible tests for hypothesized adaptive traits in
humans, especially given that such hypotheses generally cannot be tested by the