Event Detail
Wed Apr 27, 2011 470 Stephens Hall 6–8 PM Hosted jointly with OHST |
Working Group in the History and Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Science Helen Longino A pluralist stance towards the sciences of human behavior |
This talk examines the evidential and argumentative structures of a subset of current sciences of human behavior. The focus will be on approaches in behavior genetics, neurophysiology and anatomy, developmental biology and psychology, and approaches that combine one or more of these in interactive models. I will argue that these approaches, some of which are frequently represented as in empirical conflict one with another, are not, properly understood, in a conflict that can be empirically settled, nor are they reducible to one fundamental approach. Some of the consequences of taking this pluralist stance will be explored.