Thesis ID: CBB001560956

Exceptions Make the Rules: The Role of Disturbing Conditions in Ecological Theorizing (2004)

unapi

Eliot, Christopher Hobson (Author)


University of Minnesota
Waters, C. Kenneth


Publication Date: 2004
Edition Details: Advisor: Waters, C. Kenneth
Physical Details: 187 pp.
Language: English

This dissertation considers the role of what have been called "disturbing conditions" in scientific theories, and in ecology in particular. Disturbing conditions are causal factors which influence the phenomena described by a theory, but which are excluded from consideration within the theory at some point in its development. Ecologists, who develop theory in the branch of biology concerned with relationships among organisms and their environments, try to construct explanatory and predictive theories in a domain where relevant causal factors are extremely numerous and diverse. Their theories inevitably face disturbing conditions. Philosophers of science considering such domains have developed a number of arguments to the effect that general theory therein must be impossible or severely compromised. A main reason is the likelihood that disturbing conditions pose exceptions to any potential general laws, falsifying them. In response to this concern, I consider here whether ecologists do face problems due to disturbing conditions, and how they handle them, if so. I focus the role of disturbing conditions in the development of theories of ecological succession--theories about how the species composition of an area changes naturally over time--with a focus on two major theories of vegetation, Frederic Clements's early theory, and David Tilman's recent one. The major finding is that their theories do not face exceptions (nor therefore also the philosophers' problems) because they neither assert nor aim to assert law-like generalizations. I discuss their strategies for handling the remaining problem of how to explain vegetation despite disturbing conditions.

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Description Compares the theories of ecological succession of Frederic Clements and David Tilman. Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 65/11 (2005): 4226. UMI pub. no. 3152843.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001560956/

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Authors & Contributors
da Rocha Brando Fernandez, Fernanda
Kirchhoff, Thomas
Seaward, M. R. D.
Nilsson, Sven
Nicolson, Malcolm
Masutti, Christophe
Concepts
Ecology
Plant ecology
Theory (philosophy)
Philosophy of science
Environmental sciences
Botany
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
20th century, late
18th century
Pleistocene
Places
United States
Sweden
Russia
France
Great Britain
Institutions
Universität Zürich
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
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