Explanatory Particularism in Scientific Practice

About the author

Melinda Bonnie Fagan is Sterling M. McMurrin Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. She has an interdisciplinary background, originally trained in biology (BA 1992, Williams College; PhD 1998, Stanford University), then philosophy (MA 2002, University of Texas at Austin), culminating in history and philosophy of science (PhD 2007, Indiana University). Her research focuses on experimental practice in biology (particularly stem cell and developmental biology), explanation, and social epistemology of science. She is the author of Philosophy of Stem Cell Biology (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Elements in the Philosophy of Biology: Stem Cells (Cambridge, 2021), and many journal articles, book chapters, and commentaries on various topics in philosophy of science and biology.

Summary

Explanatory Particularism in Scientific Practice argues that explanations are products of collaborative activity in particular communities. This particularist approach helps to frame questions about interdisciplinarity, and has implications bearing on the nature of understanding, the unity of science, objectivity, and science-society relations.

Product details

• Authors: Fagan , Melinda Bonnie Fagan, Melinda Bonnie (University of Utah) Fagan
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 22.04.2025
• EAN: 9780198897453
• ISBN: 978-0-19-889745-3
• No. of pages: 368
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); PHILOSOPHY / Social, PHILOSOPHY / Political, PHILOSOPHY / Epistemology, SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, Philosophy of Science, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge, Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge