Article ID: CBB001024015

In Pursuit of Formaldehyde: Causally Explanatory Models and Falsification (2011)

unapi

Falsification no longer is the cornerstone of philosophy of science; but it still looms widely that scientists ought to drop an explanatory hypothesis in view of negative results. We shall argue that, to the contrary, negative empirical results are unable to disqualify causally explanatory hypotheses---not because of the shielding effect of auxiliary assumptions but because of the fact that the causal irrelevance of a factor cannot empirically be established. This perspective is elaborated at a case study taken from the history of plant physiology: the formaldehyde model of photosynthesis, which for about sixty years (1870s to 1930s) dominated the field---despite the fact that in these sixty years all the attempts to conclusively demonstrate even the presence of formaldehyde in plants failed.

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Description On the history of plant physiology, specifically the formaldehyde model of photosynthesis, which dominated the field from the 1870s to the 1930s.


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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001024015/

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Authors & Contributors
Nickelsen, Kärin
Cobb, Aaron D.
Díez, José A.
Dowe, Phil
Hutton, James
Losee, John
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
European Physical Journal H
Foundations of Science
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Journal of the History of Ideas
Publishers
MIT Press
Oxford University Press
Routledge
Springer
Saint Louis University
Concepts
Philosophy of science
Explanation; hypotheses; theories
Causality
Biochemistry
Photosynthesis
Epistemology
People
Calvin, Melvin
Descartes, René
Einstein, Albert
Kant, Immanuel
Kuhn, Thomas S.
Mach, Ernst
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
17th century
20th century
18th century
Places
Great Britain
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