Philosophy of science offers a rich lineage of analysis concerning the nature of scientific expla... more Philosophy of science offers a rich lineage of analysis concerning the nature of scientific explanation, but the vast majority of this work, aiming to provide an analysis of the relation that binds a given explanans to its corresponding explanandum, presumes the proper analytic focus rests at the level of individual explanations. There are, however, other questions we could ask about explanation in science, such as: What role(s) does explanatory practice play in science? Shifting focus away from explanations, as achievements, toward explaining, as a coordinated activity of communities, the functional perspective aims to reveal how the practice of explanatory discourse functions within scientific communities given their more comprehensive aims and practices. In this paper, I outline the functional perspective, argue that taking the functional perspective can reveal important methodological roles for explanation in science, and consequently, that beginning here provides resources for developing more adequate responses to traditional concerns. In particular, through an examination of the ideal gas law, I emphasize the normative status of explanations within scientific communities and discuss how such status underwrites a compelling rationale for explanatory power as a theoretical virtue.
Keywords: explanation, explanatory power, functional perspective, idealization, ideal gas law
In this essay, I reflect on the significance of 'the turn to practice' for contemporary philosoph... more In this essay, I reflect on the significance of 'the turn to practice' for contemporary philosophy of science. After briefly characterizing the practice turn and its inherent challenges, I discuss chemistry's periodic law, drawing on its establishment in the nineteenth century to illustrate how attention to practice is relevant for understanding scientific representation, and considering the subsequent entrenchment of the periodic table within chemistry to argue for the inter-relation between representation and explanation. I suggest this example's significance is best appreciated by taking a functional perspective on scientific explanation and conclude by highlighting philosophical gains enabled by attention to practice.
In this essay the introduction of quantum mechanics into chemistry serves as a case study of repr... more In this essay the introduction of quantum mechanics into chemistry serves as a case study of representational innovation in science. Because the basic complexity of quantum-mechanical representations of molecular systems eliminates the possibility of analytic solutions to the corresponding equations, approximation techniques and issues of computational tractability take center stage. Largely abstract mathematical techniques must work hand in hand with significant pieces of pre-existing knowledge, both conceptual and empirical, to generate results of chemical significance. An important consequence of this specific integration of mathematical techniques with pre-existing knowledge is the development of new, amalgamated chemical concepts that are not derived directly from quantum theory and yet are direct descendants of it. This new conceptual repertoire is accompanied by a dramatic development in alternative representational resources, diagrammatic schemes, that allow the incorporation of the new chemical concepts into disciplinary contexts within chemistry that were essentially isolated from the original mathematical resources of quantum theory.
Using the ideal gas law as a comparative example, this essay reviews contemporary research in phi... more Using the ideal gas law as a comparative example, this essay reviews contemporary research in philosophy of science concerning scientific explanation. It outlines the inferential, causal, unification, and erotetic conceptions of explanation and discusses an alternative project, the functional perspective. In each case, the aim is to highlight insights from these investigations that are salient for pedagogical concerns. Perhaps most importantly, this essay argues that science teachers should be mindful of the normative and prescriptive components of explanatory discourse both in the classroom and in science more generally. Giving attention to this dimension of explanation not only will do justice to the nature of explanatory activity in science but also will support the development of robust reasoning skills in science students while helping them understand an important respect in which science is more than a straightforward collection of empirical facts, and consequently, science education involves more than simply learning them.
Most contemporary chemists consider quantum mechanics to be the foundational theory of their disc... more Most contemporary chemists consider quantum mechanics to be the foundational theory of their discipline, although few of the calculations that a strict reduction would seem to require have ever been produced. In this essay I discuss contemporary algebraic and diagrammatic representations of molecular systems derived from quantum mechanical models, specifically configuration interaction wavefunctions for ab initio calculations and molecular orbital energy diagrams. My aim is to suggest that recent dissatisfaction with reductive accounts of chemical theory may stem from both the inability of standard accounts of reduction to incorporate the diverse forms of representation found in chemical practice and our philosophical predilection to analyze all connections between theories in terms of logical reduction.
This essay explores the connection between representation and explanation in the sciences. I sugg... more This essay explores the connection between representation and explanation in the sciences. I suggest that scientific representation schemes be viewed as pragmatic tools for acquiring the sort of articulated awareness that is the hallmark of nontrivial knowledge. Crystal field theory in chemistry illustrates this perspective. Certain representations achieve the status of being paradigmatically explanatory, thereby shaping models of intelligibility. In turn, these explanatory preferences serve largely to define and differentiate disciplinary communities by implicitly endorsing particular epistemic aims and values. In this way, the pragmatic nature of explanatory discourse effectively grants its intellectual utility.
This essay addresses issues concerning explanation by exploring how explanatory structures functi... more This essay addresses issues concerning explanation by exploring how explanatory structures function within contemporary chemistry. Three examples are discussed: explanations of the behavior of gases using the ideal gas law, explanations of trends in chemical properties using the periodic table, and explanations of molecular geometry using diagrammatic orbital schemes. In each case, the general explanatory structure, rather than particular explanations, occupies center stage in the analysis. It is argued that this quasi-empirical investigation may be more fruitful than previous analyses that attempt to isolate the essential features of individual explanations. There are two reasons for this conclusion, each discussed in some detail. First, the traditional analyses rely on highly precarious reasoning. Second, empirically grounded investigations provide a more natural connection to the core aim of analyses ofexplanation, namely to provide a rationale for the widely expressed preference for explanatory theories in science.
Philosophy of chemistry investigates the foundational concepts and methods of chemistry, the scie... more Philosophy of chemistry investigates the foundational concepts and methods of chemistry, the science of the nature of substances and their transformations. This groundbreaking collection, the most thorough treatment of the philosophy of chemistry ever published, brings together philosophers, scientists and historians to map out the central topics in the field. The thirty-three articles address the history of the philosophy of chemistry, and the philosophical importance of some central figures in the history of chemistry; the nature of chemical ...
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Jan 1, 2003
This essay explores connections between explanatory discourse and disciplinary identity. While ex... more This essay explores connections between explanatory discourse and disciplinary identity. While explanation is frequently assumed to be one of the central aims of the sciences, I contend that if we want to appreciate explanation’s role within scientific practice, we need to look elsewhere. Explanations encode the aims and values of particular scientific communities, telling practitioners what they should want to know about the world and how they should reason to get there. By inculcating patterns of reasoning consistent with these aims and values, explanatory discourse is crucial for the formation of cohesive scientific disciplines. Yet because such discourse is frequently grounded in exemplars, the implicit nature of exemplar-based training must be confronted. I argue that exemplars are an appropriate vehicle for communicating skill-based knowledge and methodological norms and, additionally, that exemplars are a practical means of grappling with the indeterminacy of theory application.
In 1590, or thereabouts, Galileo wrote the manuscript De Motu (Galileo 1590). In this text he att... more In 1590, or thereabouts, Galileo wrote the manuscript De Motu (Galileo 1590). In this text he attempted to demonstrate the errors of Aristotelian natural philosophy and began his lifelong attempt to construct a science of motion. The chief device in De Motu was his wide ranging use of the balance. The balance was a simple machine, familiar to all, that Galileo could describe using principles of equilibrium.
In this paper we suggest an empirical thesis: Galileo understood something important when he used the balance as the basic equilibrium model in order to understand all the phenomena of motion. Galileo used the balance model to make intelligible problems of dynamics as well as kinematics (as we anachronistically call them).
We believe that using the Galilean balance equilibrium model today in physics classes at the secondary and college levels (and probably even at the elementary school level) would provide students with a model of intelligibility that would unify their thinking about motion and, at the same time, provide them with a general procedural schema for solving motion problems.
A formalism for designing an optical field for selective vibrational excitation in linear harmoni... more A formalism for designing an optical field for selective vibrational excitation in linear harmonic chain molecules is presented based on optimal control theory. The optimizing functional producing the field designs is flexible to allow for the imposition of desirable laboratory and theoretical constraints. The designed optimal fields, which successfully lead to local bond excitations, exhibit complex structure on the time scale of 10 fs. Analysis of the optimal fields shows a high degree of cooperativety between the temporal structure of the fields and the dynamical capabilities of the molecules. It is generally impossible using only spectral information to devise the optical field needed to selectively excite a local bond in a polyatomic molecule. These results explain why the previous intuitively based laboratory attempts at site specific chemistry have yielded disappointing results.
Philosophy of science offers a rich lineage of analysis concerning the nature of scientific expla... more Philosophy of science offers a rich lineage of analysis concerning the nature of scientific explanation, but the vast majority of this work, aiming to provide an analysis of the relation that binds a given explanans to its corresponding explanandum, presumes the proper analytic focus rests at the level of individual explanations. There are, however, other questions we could ask about explanation in science, such as: What role(s) does explanatory practice play in science? Shifting focus away from explanations, as achievements, toward explaining, as a coordinated activity of communities, the functional perspective aims to reveal how the practice of explanatory discourse functions within scientific communities given their more comprehensive aims and practices. In this paper, I outline the functional perspective, argue that taking the functional perspective can reveal important methodological roles for explanation in science, and consequently, that beginning here provides resources for developing more adequate responses to traditional concerns. In particular, through an examination of the ideal gas law, I emphasize the normative status of explanations within scientific communities and discuss how such status underwrites a compelling rationale for explanatory power as a theoretical virtue.
Keywords: explanation, explanatory power, functional perspective, idealization, ideal gas law
In this essay, I reflect on the significance of 'the turn to practice' for contemporary philosoph... more In this essay, I reflect on the significance of 'the turn to practice' for contemporary philosophy of science. After briefly characterizing the practice turn and its inherent challenges, I discuss chemistry's periodic law, drawing on its establishment in the nineteenth century to illustrate how attention to practice is relevant for understanding scientific representation, and considering the subsequent entrenchment of the periodic table within chemistry to argue for the inter-relation between representation and explanation. I suggest this example's significance is best appreciated by taking a functional perspective on scientific explanation and conclude by highlighting philosophical gains enabled by attention to practice.
In this essay the introduction of quantum mechanics into chemistry serves as a case study of repr... more In this essay the introduction of quantum mechanics into chemistry serves as a case study of representational innovation in science. Because the basic complexity of quantum-mechanical representations of molecular systems eliminates the possibility of analytic solutions to the corresponding equations, approximation techniques and issues of computational tractability take center stage. Largely abstract mathematical techniques must work hand in hand with significant pieces of pre-existing knowledge, both conceptual and empirical, to generate results of chemical significance. An important consequence of this specific integration of mathematical techniques with pre-existing knowledge is the development of new, amalgamated chemical concepts that are not derived directly from quantum theory and yet are direct descendants of it. This new conceptual repertoire is accompanied by a dramatic development in alternative representational resources, diagrammatic schemes, that allow the incorporation of the new chemical concepts into disciplinary contexts within chemistry that were essentially isolated from the original mathematical resources of quantum theory.
Using the ideal gas law as a comparative example, this essay reviews contemporary research in phi... more Using the ideal gas law as a comparative example, this essay reviews contemporary research in philosophy of science concerning scientific explanation. It outlines the inferential, causal, unification, and erotetic conceptions of explanation and discusses an alternative project, the functional perspective. In each case, the aim is to highlight insights from these investigations that are salient for pedagogical concerns. Perhaps most importantly, this essay argues that science teachers should be mindful of the normative and prescriptive components of explanatory discourse both in the classroom and in science more generally. Giving attention to this dimension of explanation not only will do justice to the nature of explanatory activity in science but also will support the development of robust reasoning skills in science students while helping them understand an important respect in which science is more than a straightforward collection of empirical facts, and consequently, science education involves more than simply learning them.
Most contemporary chemists consider quantum mechanics to be the foundational theory of their disc... more Most contemporary chemists consider quantum mechanics to be the foundational theory of their discipline, although few of the calculations that a strict reduction would seem to require have ever been produced. In this essay I discuss contemporary algebraic and diagrammatic representations of molecular systems derived from quantum mechanical models, specifically configuration interaction wavefunctions for ab initio calculations and molecular orbital energy diagrams. My aim is to suggest that recent dissatisfaction with reductive accounts of chemical theory may stem from both the inability of standard accounts of reduction to incorporate the diverse forms of representation found in chemical practice and our philosophical predilection to analyze all connections between theories in terms of logical reduction.
This essay explores the connection between representation and explanation in the sciences. I sugg... more This essay explores the connection between representation and explanation in the sciences. I suggest that scientific representation schemes be viewed as pragmatic tools for acquiring the sort of articulated awareness that is the hallmark of nontrivial knowledge. Crystal field theory in chemistry illustrates this perspective. Certain representations achieve the status of being paradigmatically explanatory, thereby shaping models of intelligibility. In turn, these explanatory preferences serve largely to define and differentiate disciplinary communities by implicitly endorsing particular epistemic aims and values. In this way, the pragmatic nature of explanatory discourse effectively grants its intellectual utility.
This essay addresses issues concerning explanation by exploring how explanatory structures functi... more This essay addresses issues concerning explanation by exploring how explanatory structures function within contemporary chemistry. Three examples are discussed: explanations of the behavior of gases using the ideal gas law, explanations of trends in chemical properties using the periodic table, and explanations of molecular geometry using diagrammatic orbital schemes. In each case, the general explanatory structure, rather than particular explanations, occupies center stage in the analysis. It is argued that this quasi-empirical investigation may be more fruitful than previous analyses that attempt to isolate the essential features of individual explanations. There are two reasons for this conclusion, each discussed in some detail. First, the traditional analyses rely on highly precarious reasoning. Second, empirically grounded investigations provide a more natural connection to the core aim of analyses ofexplanation, namely to provide a rationale for the widely expressed preference for explanatory theories in science.
Philosophy of chemistry investigates the foundational concepts and methods of chemistry, the scie... more Philosophy of chemistry investigates the foundational concepts and methods of chemistry, the science of the nature of substances and their transformations. This groundbreaking collection, the most thorough treatment of the philosophy of chemistry ever published, brings together philosophers, scientists and historians to map out the central topics in the field. The thirty-three articles address the history of the philosophy of chemistry, and the philosophical importance of some central figures in the history of chemistry; the nature of chemical ...
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Jan 1, 2003
This essay explores connections between explanatory discourse and disciplinary identity. While ex... more This essay explores connections between explanatory discourse and disciplinary identity. While explanation is frequently assumed to be one of the central aims of the sciences, I contend that if we want to appreciate explanation’s role within scientific practice, we need to look elsewhere. Explanations encode the aims and values of particular scientific communities, telling practitioners what they should want to know about the world and how they should reason to get there. By inculcating patterns of reasoning consistent with these aims and values, explanatory discourse is crucial for the formation of cohesive scientific disciplines. Yet because such discourse is frequently grounded in exemplars, the implicit nature of exemplar-based training must be confronted. I argue that exemplars are an appropriate vehicle for communicating skill-based knowledge and methodological norms and, additionally, that exemplars are a practical means of grappling with the indeterminacy of theory application.
In 1590, or thereabouts, Galileo wrote the manuscript De Motu (Galileo 1590). In this text he att... more In 1590, or thereabouts, Galileo wrote the manuscript De Motu (Galileo 1590). In this text he attempted to demonstrate the errors of Aristotelian natural philosophy and began his lifelong attempt to construct a science of motion. The chief device in De Motu was his wide ranging use of the balance. The balance was a simple machine, familiar to all, that Galileo could describe using principles of equilibrium.
In this paper we suggest an empirical thesis: Galileo understood something important when he used the balance as the basic equilibrium model in order to understand all the phenomena of motion. Galileo used the balance model to make intelligible problems of dynamics as well as kinematics (as we anachronistically call them).
We believe that using the Galilean balance equilibrium model today in physics classes at the secondary and college levels (and probably even at the elementary school level) would provide students with a model of intelligibility that would unify their thinking about motion and, at the same time, provide them with a general procedural schema for solving motion problems.
A formalism for designing an optical field for selective vibrational excitation in linear harmoni... more A formalism for designing an optical field for selective vibrational excitation in linear harmonic chain molecules is presented based on optimal control theory. The optimizing functional producing the field designs is flexible to allow for the imposition of desirable laboratory and theoretical constraints. The designed optimal fields, which successfully lead to local bond excitations, exhibit complex structure on the time scale of 10 fs. Analysis of the optimal fields shows a high degree of cooperativety between the temporal structure of the fields and the dynamical capabilities of the molecules. It is generally impossible using only spectral information to devise the optical field needed to selectively excite a local bond in a polyatomic molecule. These results explain why the previous intuitively based laboratory attempts at site specific chemistry have yielded disappointing results.
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Keywords: explanation, explanatory power, functional perspective, idealization, ideal gas law
In this paper we suggest an empirical thesis: Galileo understood something important when he used the balance as the basic equilibrium model in order to understand all the phenomena of motion. Galileo used the balance model to make intelligible problems of dynamics as well as kinematics (as we anachronistically call them).
We believe that using the Galilean balance equilibrium model today in physics classes at the secondary and college levels (and probably even at the elementary school level) would provide students with a model of intelligibility that would unify their thinking about motion and, at the same time, provide them with a general procedural schema for solving motion problems.
Keywords: explanation, explanatory power, functional perspective, idealization, ideal gas law
In this paper we suggest an empirical thesis: Galileo understood something important when he used the balance as the basic equilibrium model in order to understand all the phenomena of motion. Galileo used the balance model to make intelligible problems of dynamics as well as kinematics (as we anachronistically call them).
We believe that using the Galilean balance equilibrium model today in physics classes at the secondary and college levels (and probably even at the elementary school level) would provide students with a model of intelligibility that would unify their thinking about motion and, at the same time, provide them with a general procedural schema for solving motion problems.