Matthew Crawford

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• Commented on Question Submission 14 (Last One)
  I appreciate the pragmatic way which Love and Huettemann tackle reductionism. Up to this point it had seemed as though the discussion regarding reductionism was polarized in black and white terms between the reductionists and the anti-reductionists. Accordingly, the new...
• Commented on Question Submission 13
  In section 4.2, Rosenberg sketches out a reductionistic progression which he derives from research into the functioning of the circulatory system, “The story is sketched below, beginning with the chemistry and concluding with the biological function it explains.” The implication...
• Commented on Question Submission 12
  It is harder for me to argue the worth of reduction as it is to admit to its inevitability. I think that reduction is a necessary and inextricable part of the scientific process and how it supposes to parcel, analyze...
• Commented on Question Submission 12
  As I read through Hull's first chapter I couldn't help wondering where scientific practice fits into the replacement/reduction equation. Hull refers to the issue as 'theory reduction', but I wasn't convinced that this was so much an attempt to purposefully...
• Commented on Question Submission 10
  I think that Avery's experiment supporting the theory that DNA is the inheritable material is a good way of exploring the transition between classical and molecular genetics. In many ways, it follows Water's ideal of a experiment that was only...
• Commented on Question Submission 8
  It is tricky to come up with a concrete example of how Water's epistemology of scientific practice could or does directly effect contemporary scientific research practices. However, I think that the ramifications of his epistemology could effect certain important aspects...
• Commented on Question Submission 8
  I keep on going back to Morgan's paradox and the discussions of causality which surround it. In Chapter 2.4 Prof. Waters is discussing Woodward's Interventionist theory of causality and he makes the point that this theory is not reductive....
• Commented on Question Submission 7
  “In epistemic darkness, the precision of laser doesn't disprove the utility of a bare light bulb.” I think that this fine proverb makes a worthwhile point by highlighting the metaphorical utility of both a laser and a light bulb. Scientific...
• Commented on Question Submission 7
  In his introductory chapter, Prof. Waters calls out the dissonant gap between the practical scope of a successful science and the scope of the overarching theories which that practice is operating under. In essence, when the scientist is deeply...
• Commented on Question Submission 5
  It is interesting to think about what currents of evolution are dominating contemporary life on this planet. Obviously, biological-based natural selection was the dominate form of evolution for billions of years, then in the last couple thousand years artificial selection...
• Commented on Question Submission 5
  In the 'Units of Evolutionary Transition', Prof. Griesemer argues for a model of evolutionary transition that accommodates an integral place for development. This requires that reproduction, which includes a more complex process of replication i.e. material overlap and development, is...
• Commented on Question Submission 4
  I think that science is best served when we start from the details and minutiae and infer our laws and models from the bottom up. 'Specialism' is a necessary part of uncovering these details and shouldn't be viewed as...
• Commented on Question Submission 4
  In Chapter 5, Moore points out that, “it sometimes appears that much of the progress in science is due to fortunate accidents”. We have already seen such 'fortunate accidents' with Mendel and his selection of pea plants as his model...
• Commented on Question Submission 2
  It is interesting to point out that there could be a perceived “shift in scientific research from seeking out and categorizing differences to looking for uniformity among all organisms.” However, I think that no real shift necessarily had to...
• Commented on Question Submission 2
  In Moore's discussion of 'Early Evidence for the Nuclear Control of Inheritance' he describes the reasoning which late 19th century biologists used to pinpoint the nucleus as the location of the inheritable material. In dealing with the huge disparity...
• Commented on Question Submission 1
  When I brought up the naivety of a teleological progression, I was giving a specific shout out, as it were, to Kuhn. His argument, especially in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, made a pretty convincing case for why a belief...
• Commented on Question Submission 1
  In dealing with a wide range of unexplainable phenomena and little knowledge about the mechanisms of heredity Darwin's created a proto-genetic agent called the gemmule in his theory of pangenesis. In a sense, this is a phenomenological thinker creating phenomenological...
• Commented on Trial Run
  Mendel...