Scientific Crossbreeding "3 ! "4 ! Scientific Crossbreeding Rolf Hvidtfeldt PhD thesis "5 Scientific Crossbreeding PhD-Thesis September 2016 Author: Rolf Hvidtfeldt Supervisor: Nikolaj Nottelmann Philosophy Department for the Study of Culture University of Southern Denmark 82.447 words 529.762 characters # 252 normalsider á 2.100 anslag This thesis is the intellectual property of the author. Printed by Print & Sign! "6 Contents: Illustrations:.................................................................................................. 10 Preface........................................................................................................... 13 1 — Introduction........................................................................................... 17 The (epistemic) fundamentals of interdisciplinarity................................................ 18 Interdisciplinarity Studies....................................................................................... 20 My alternative........................................................................................................ 21 Does everybody represent?.................................................................................. 22 The intermediate layer........................................................................................... 24 Tools, algorithms, and basic assumptions........................................................ 25 An example............................................................................................................ 27 Why engage in this kind of madness?.............................................................. 28 A bit of terminological explication.......................................................................... 29 Targets.............................................................................................................. 31 Approaches....................................................................................................... 32 “Distance” and “proximity”................................................................................. 33 Summing up.......................................................................................................... 34 2 — Disciplines and approaches................................................................. 39 What are these things called ‘disciplines’?............................................................ 41 Distinctive discussions of “discipline”.................................................................... 42 Problems of disciplinarity.................................................................................. 43 Three dimensions (plus some) of disciplinarity...................................................... 45 Social aspects only........................................................................................... 46 Objects only...................................................................................................... 46 Objects and tools combined.............................................................................. 47 All included?...................................................................................................... 49 Where does this leave us?................................................................................ 49 Approaches........................................................................................................... 51 Approaches vs. fields........................................................................................ 54 Distance vs. proximity revisited......................................................................... 54 More on temporality.......................................................................................... 55 Summing up.......................................................................................................... 57 3 — Interdisciplinarity Studies.................................................................... 59 What is interdisciplinarity?..................................................................................... 61 Knowledge generation and integration.................................................................. 62 Interdisciplinarity is not new ..................................................................................64 More recent developments: The turn-turn............................................................. 66 Literature studies.............................................................................................. 67 Psychoanalytic literature studies....................................................................... 68 A different approach.......................................................................................... 69 The evolutionary turn........................................................................................ 69 The neurological turn........................................................................................ 71 What is the point?............................................................................................. 74 More reasonable reasons for interdisciplinarity..................................................... 74 Specialisation vs. integration............................................................................ 76 "7 Three modes of integration.................................................................................... 78 The polymath mode.......................................................................................... 78 The social mode................................................................................................ 79 The educational mode...................................................................................... 79 All of the above................................................................................................. 79 Science without a core set?................................................................................... 79 Degenerating hard core sets............................................................................. 80 Summing up.......................................................................................................... 81 4 — The relevance of philosophy................................................................ 85 Relevant philosophical approaches to interdisciplinarity....................................... 87 Kitcher’s historical perspective.......................................................................... 88 Weisberg’s vehicle perspective......................................................................... 89 Pluralism and representation................................................................................. 90 Summing up.......................................................................................................... 92 5 — Representation...................................................................................... 95 The basics............................................................................................................. 97 Enter Ronald Giere................................................................................................ 99 Constructive Realism...................................................................................... 100 Perspectival Realism...................................................................................... 102 The expanded and enriched X............................................................................ 104 Deflation.......................................................................................................... 105 To model (mathematically) or not to model (at all)............................................... 106 The propositions............................................................................................. 109 Weisberg on construal; assignment; fidelity.................................................... 110 Use & similarity.................................................................................................... 111 Summing up......................................................................................................... 113 6 – Pluralisms, perspectives, and potential problems............................ 119 Pluralism—what is it?.......................................................................................... 120 The Pluralisms..................................................................................................... 123 #1 – Internal pluralism..................................................................................... 123 #2 – External pluralism ..................................................................................124 #3 – Metaphysical (nomological) pluralism and CP-clauses........................... 124 #4 – Epistemic (representational) pluralism.................................................... 125 Perspectivism...................................................................................................... 126 Perspectives of theory.................................................................................... 128 Laws and perspectives................................................................................... 131 Distortions............................................................................................................ 131 Idealisation...................................................................................................... 131 ID-idealisation................................................................................................