Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

 Evolutionary philosophies of science allow us to offer integrated accounts of traditionally opposed perspectives of science, namely internalist narratives based on the rationality of scientific progress, and externalist reconstructions of the social norms governing scientific communities. Nonetheless, evolutionary epistemologists have predominantly viewed science as a selection process, emphasizing the external criteria used by scientists to select theoretical perspectives. In my paper, I delve into the recent evolution of evolutionary theory as a case study to delve into the internal factors contributing to the evolvability of scientific theories. To accomplish this, I combine bibliometric analysis with interviews of key actors in the field of evolutionary biology. Through this research, I categorize the internal factors that influence the emergence of evolvability research into two categories: (1) intrinsic properties of scientific concepts, such as simplicity and generality, and (2) variational properties of concepts and theories, such as modularity and integration between concepts and theory components.