Formal Models of Scientific Inquiry in a Social Context: An Introduction

Šešelja, Dunja; Straßer, Christian; Borg, AnneMarie

doi:10.1007/s10838-020-09502-w

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…While it may turn out that such a threat is indeed relevant under specific conditions of inquiry, which exact conditions these are (when interpreted in terms of actual scientific practice) has remained largely underspecified in the literature. 20 From a more general point of view, our study provides support to recent calls for a modest treatment of results obtained by highly idealized agent-based models of scientific inquiry unless they have been empirically validated (Martini & Fernández Pinto, 2017;Frey & Šešelja, 2018;Thicke, 2020;Šešelja et al 2020;Šešelja, 2021; for a somewhat different viewpoint see Mayo-Wilson & Zollman, 2021).…”

Section: Searchsupporting

confidence: 59%

Rethinking the history of peptic ulcer disease and its relevance for network epistemology

Radomski

Šešelja

Naumann

2021

HPLS

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The history of the research on peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is characterized by a premature abandonment of the bacterial hypothesis, which subsequently had its comeback, leading to the discovery of Helicobacter pylori—the major cause of the disease. In this paper we examine the received view on this case, according to which the primary reason for the abandonment of the bacterial hypothesis in the mid-twentieth century was a large-scale study by a prominent gastroenterologist Palmer, which suggested no bacteria could be found in the human stomach. To this end, we employ the method of digital textual analysis and study the literature on the etiology of PUD published in the decade prior to Palmer’s article. Our findings suggest that the bacterial hypothesis had already been abandoned before the publication of Palmer’s paper, which challenges the widely held view that his study played a crucial role in the development of this episode. In view of this result, we argue that the PUD case does not illustrate harmful effects of a high degree of information flow, as it has frequently been claimed in the literature on network epistemology. Moreover, we argue that alternative examples of harmful effects of a high degree of information flow may be hard to find in the history of science.

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Section: Searchsupporting

confidence: 59%

Rethinking the history of peptic ulcer disease and its relevance for network epistemology

Radomski

Šešelja

Naumann

2021

HPLS

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“…Philosophers have developed valuable simulation models for investigating group behavior in a variety of epistemic tasks (see Šešelja, Straußer, and Borg 2020). These models can be usefully modi ed to address issues of societal concern regarding the impact of demographic diversity.…”

Section: Empirically Sensitive Robustness In Simulation Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity, Trust, and Conformity: A Simulation Study

Fazelpour

Steel

2022

Philos. sci.

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Previous simulation models have found positive effects of cognitive diversity on group performance, but have not explored effects of diversity in demographics (e.g., gender, ethnicity). In this paper, we present an agent-based model that captures two empirically supported hypotheses about how demographic diversity can improve group performance. The results of our simulations suggest that, even when social identities are not associated with distinctive task-related cognitive resources, demographic diversity can, in certain circumstances, benefit collective performance by counteracting two types of conformity that can arise in homogeneous groups: those relating to group-based trust and those connected to normative expectations towards in-groups.

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“…3 As a result, it has been suggested that the vast majority of ABMs developed in philosophy of science are currently only exploratory, rather than explanatory (Frey and Šešelja 1. For a recent overview of formal models of scientific inquiry see Šešelja, Straßer, and Borg 2020. 2. Of special relevance here is the work by Kuhn, Lakatos, Feyerabend, Laudan, and others who advanced historicist theories of scientific rationality (Nickles 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Scientific Inquiry via Agent-Based Modelling

Šešelja

2021

Perspectives on Science

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In this paper I examine the epistemic function of agent-based models (ABMs) of scientific inquiry, proposed in the recent philosophical literature. In view of Boero and Squazzoni’s (2005) classification of ABMs into case-based models, typifications and theoretical abstractions, I argue that proposed ABMs of scientific inquiry largely belong to the last category. While this means that their function is primarily exploratory, I suggest that they are epistemically valuable not only as a temporary stage in the development of ABMs of science, but by providing insights into theoretical aspects of scientific rationality. I illustrate my point with two examples of highly idealized ABMs of science, which perform two exploratory functions: Zollman’s (2010) ABM which provides a proof-of-possibility in the realm of theoretical discussions on scientific rationality, and an argumentation-based ABM (Borg et al. 2019, 2017b, 2018), which provides insights into potential mechanisms underlying the efficiency of scientific inquiry.

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Formal Models of Scientific Inquiry in a Social Context: An Introduction

Cited by 9 publications

References 54 publications

Rethinking the history of peptic ulcer disease and its relevance for network epistemology

Rethinking the history of peptic ulcer disease and its relevance for network epistemology

Diversity, Trust, and Conformity: A Simulation Study

Exploring Scientific Inquiry via Agent-Based Modelling

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