Article ID: CBB604254804

Bottled Understanding: The Role of Lab Work in Ecology (2020)

unapi

It is often thought that the vindication of experimental work lies in its capacity to be revelatory of natural systems. I challenge this idea by examining laboratory experiments in ecology. A central task of community ecology involves combining mathematical models and observational data to identify trophic interactions in natural systems. But many ecologists are also lab scientists: constructing microcosm or ‘bottle’ experiments, physically realizing the idealized circumstances described in mathematical models. What vindicates such ecological experiments? I argue that ‘extrapolationism’, the view that ecological lab work is valuable because it generates truths about natural systems, does not exhaust the epistemic value of such practices. Instead, bottle experiments also generate ‘understanding’ of both ecological dynamics and empirical tools. Some lab work, then, aids theoretical understanding, as well as targeting hypotheses about nature. 1.  Introduction2.  Trophic Interactions and Observational Techniques3.  Cryptic Dynamics in Bottle Experiments4.  Extrapolationism 4.1.  Ecological possibility and actuality4.2.  Ecological heterogeneity5.  Understanding 5.1.  The epistemic good of understanding5.2.  Bottle experiments as understanding-generators5.3.  How understanding travels6.  Conclusion

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Authors & Contributors
Nersessian, Nancy J.
Rodrigues, Ana Duarte
Vrishali Subramanian
Nelson, Nicole Christine
Chandrasekharan, Sanjay
Wolkenhauer, Olaf
Concepts
Models and modeling in science
Experiments and experimentation
Mathematics and its relationship to nature
Laboratories
Epistemology
Philosophy of science
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
17th century
16th century
Places
Everest, Mount (China and Nepal)
England
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