What we (should) talk about when we talk about fruitfulness
Ivani,Silvia
Ivani,Silvia
Abstract
What are the relevant values to the appraisal of research programs? This question remains hotly debated, as philosophers have recently proposed many lists of values potentially relevant to scientific appraisal. Surprisingly, despite being mentioned in many lists, little attention has been paid to fruitfulness. It is unclear how fruitfulness should be explicated, and whether it has any substantial role in scientific appraisal. In this paper, I argue we should explicate fruitfulness as the capacity to develop of research programs. Moreover, I provide a novel strategy to assess and compare the fruitfulness of programs focused on their research questions and heuristics. To illustrate how this strategy would work, I will discuss a case study, namely the adaptationist program in evolutionary psychology.
Description
Date
2019-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
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Journal Issue
Keywords
ADAPTATIONISM, Adaptationism, Cognitive values, EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY, Evolutionary psychology, Fruitfulness, LOGIC, Methodological, QUESTIONS, SCIENCE, SEXUAL STRATEGIES THEORY
Citation
Ivani, S 2019, 'What we (should) talk about when we talk about fruitfulness', European Journal for Philosophy of Science, vol. 9, no. 1, 4, pp. 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-018-0231-7