A pragmatic approach to produce theoretical syntheses in ecology

Abstract

In domains that develop axiomatically, theoretical syntheses have the role to describe which are these axioms and how scientific practice should be guided by them. However ecology develops pragmatically, that is, scientists propose a new understanding of the world by exploring, modifying and co-opting previously proposed models, seldom referring to axioms. Therefore a synthesis in ecology cannot rely on the enunciation of axioms and need to be based on the actual activity of ecologists. Here we present an approach to make a theoretical synthesis based on how frequently scientists use some models to learn about the world. We argue that a domain of study can be delimited around a scientific community studying a phenomenon and that this community has a frequency of use of some models. We identify these models by assessing how the most referred publications are cited in the studies made by this community. We also present the results of the first implementation of the proposed approach to a case study with the phenomenon of ecological succession. We found that there is no clear division between "classical" and "contemporary" succession and that neutral models are now being used to explain succession.We conclude that the use of the proposed approach can be used to synthesize and understand theories that develop pragmatically and it allows for analyses of how theories change depending on the research context. Keywords: theory structure, pragmatic view, semantic view, model definition, philosophy of ecology, method development the scientific activity in biology as a whole ([NRC] National Research Coun-2 cil, 2008), and ecology is not an exception (Marquet et al., 2014). There is 3 no clearly agreed conceptual basis unifying all scientific activity in ecology 4 (Scheiner and Willig, 2011; Marquet et al., 2014) and even though there were 5 attempts to synthesize ecological theory (e.g. McIntosh, 1986; Pickett et al., 6 2010; Scheiner and Willig, 2011), these attempts were seldom referred by the 7 community. Regardless of this lack of consensus, ecology has undergone in-8 tense conceptual and institutional development as a science for more than a 9 century of history (Hagen, 1989). 10All scientific activity is guided by our previous knowledge about the world, 11 which means that all scientific activity needs to have a conceptual basis. How-12 ever, it might be the case that, in ecology, such conceptual basis is not so easy 13 to identify. In some views of scientific theories, the conceptual basis of a field of 14 study can be easily synthesized by a set of axioms or laws -statements about 15 the world assumed to be self-evident (Cartwright, 1997; Turchin, 2003). Under 16 these views, models are constructs about the world deduced from these axioms 17 and knowledge is generated by comparing phenomena with models. If a phe-18 nomenon is adequately represented by the model, and therefore behaves like 19 the model, the axioms from which the models were deduced can be regarded 20 as true for the world (Swoyer, 1991). Theref...

Towards a pragmatic view of theories in ecology

“…without resorting to universal or general laws) in ecology. The approach is explained in‐depth elsewhere (Travassos‐Britto et al 2021) and consists of identifying which propositions are most commonly used as conceptual bases in a domain of study through an analysis of citation networks and content analysis of the citations. For the purpose of highlighting the potential ways in which assuming a pragmatic view in ecology can foster a better understanding of ecological theory, it will suffice here to explore the general rationale of the approach.…”

“…We used this approach to investigate the conceptual basis of a specific domain within ecology – ecological succession – and the results obtained led to insights regarding how the contemporary collective of scientists understands succession (Travassos‐Britto et al 2021). A particular finding indicates that models in this specific domain do not seem to be unified by a set of non‐contradicting axioms, agreeing with our thesis that a pragmatic view is more coherent with the practice of ecologists.…”

Some reflections on current invasion science and perspectives for an exciting future

“…In addition, we believe that invasion biology could profit from a more explicit consideration of how knowledge is generated and from systematically analysing its conceptual basis (see suggestions in Travassos-Britto et al 2021a;Travassos-Britto et al 2021b for ecology). Further philosophical analyses of the research practices in invasion biology could help to identify weaknesses in current methods and strategies and could, thus, facilitate methodological improvement.…”