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Unity of science
Theory in the philosophy of science

The unity of science is a thesis in philosophy of science that says that all the sciences form a unified whole. The variants of the thesis can be classified as ontological (giving a unified account of the structure of reality) and/or as epistemic/pragmatic (giving a unified account of how the activities and products of science work). There are also philosophers who emphasize the disunity of science, which does not necessarily imply that there could be no unity in some sense but does emphasize pluralism in the ontology and/or practice of science.

Early versions of the unity of science thesis can be found in ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, and in the later history of Western philosophy. For example, in the first half of the 20th century the thesis was associated with the unity of science movement led by Otto Neurath, and in the second half of the century the thesis was advocated by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in "General System Theory: A New Approach to Unity of Science" (1951) and by Paul Oppenheim and Hilary Putnam in "Unity of Science as a Working Hypothesis" (1958). It has been opposed by, for example, Jerry Fodor in "Special Sciences (Or: The Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis)" (1974), by Paul Feyerabend in Against Method (1975) and later works, by John Dupré in "The Disunity of Science" (1983) and The Disorder of Things: Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity of Science (1993), by Nancy Cartwright in The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science (1999) and other works, and by Evelyn Fox Keller in Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines (2002) and other works.

Jean Piaget suggested, in his 1918 book Recherche and later works, that the unity of science can be considered in terms of a circle of the sciences, where logic is the foundation for mathematics, which is the foundation for mechanics and physics, and physics is the foundation for chemistry, which is the foundation for biology, which is the foundation for sociology, the moral sciences, psychology, and the theory of knowledge, and the theory of knowledge forms a basis for logic, completing the circle, without implying that any science could be reduced to any other. More recently, many complex systems are considered to be transdisciplinary objects of study. Such systems can be modeled as having emergent properties at different levels of organization, which do not neatly correspond to separate disciplines such as physics or biology, and which cannot be adequately modeled using a philosophy of extreme reductionism ("everything comes from the bottom", which does not fully account for emergent properties) or extreme holism ("everything comes from the top", which does not fully account for systems' components and interactions).

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See also

Notes

Further reading

References

  1. Tahko 2021, p. 4. - Tahko, Tuomas E. (2021). Unity of science. Cambridge elements in the philosophy of science. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108581417. ISBN 9781108713382. OCLC 1204142197. https://doi.org/10.1017%2F9781108581417 ↩

  2. Tahko 2021, p. 4. - Tahko, Tuomas E. (2021). Unity of science. Cambridge elements in the philosophy of science. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108581417. ISBN 9781108713382. OCLC 1204142197. https://doi.org/10.1017%2F9781108581417 ↩

  3. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  4. Wilson 2000. - Wilson, Malcolm (2000). Aristotle's theory of the unity of science. Phoenix, supplementary volume. Vol. 38. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442670990. ISBN 0802047963. OCLC 43634904. https://doi.org/10.3138%2F9781442670990 ↩

  5. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  6. Symons, Pombo & Torres 2011. - Symons, John; Pombo, Olga; Torres, Juan Manuel, eds. (2011). Otto Neurath and the unity of science. Logic, epistemology, and the unity of science. Vol. 18. Dordrecht; New York: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0143-4. ISBN 9789400701427. OCLC 723045353. https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-94-007-0143-4 ↩

  7. Symons, Pombo & Torres 2011. - Symons, John; Pombo, Olga; Torres, Juan Manuel, eds. (2011). Otto Neurath and the unity of science. Logic, epistemology, and the unity of science. Vol. 18. Dordrecht; New York: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0143-4. ISBN 9789400701427. OCLC 723045353. https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-94-007-0143-4 ↩

  8. Bertalanffy 1951. - Bertalanffy, Ludwig von (December 1951). "General system theory: a new approach to unity of science: 1. Problems of general system theory". Human Biology. 23 (4): 302–312. JSTOR 41448003. PMID 14907026. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41448003 ↩

  9. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  10. Oppenheim & Putnam 1958. - Oppenheim, Paul; Putnam, Hilary (1958). "Unity of science as a working hypothesis". In Feigl, Herbert (ed.). Concepts, theories and the mind–body problem. Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science. Vol. 2. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 3–36. hdl:11299/184622. ISBN 9780816601585. OCLC 2669746. https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/184622 ↩

  11. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  12. Fodor 1974. - Fodor, Jerry A. (October 1974). "Special sciences (or: The disunity of science as a working hypothesis)". Synthese. 28 (2): 97–115. doi:10.1007/BF00485230. JSTOR 20114958. S2CID 46979938. https://philarchive.org/rec/FODSSO-2 ↩

  13. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  14. Feyerabend 1993; Feyerabend 2011. - Feyerabend, Paul (1993) [1974]. Against method (3rd ed.). London; New York: Verso. ISBN 086091481X. OCLC 29026104. https://archive.org/details/againstmethod0000feye ↩

  15. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  16. Dupré 1983; Dupré 1993. - Dupré, John (July 1983). "The disunity of science". Mind. 92 (367): 321–346. doi:10.1093/mind/XCII.367.321. JSTOR 2253810. https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fmind%2FXCII.367.321 ↩

  17. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  18. Cartwright 1999. - Cartwright, Nancy (1999). The dappled world: a study of the boundaries of science. New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139167093. ISBN 978-0-521-64336-8. OCLC 40305531. https://doi.org/10.1017%2FCBO9781139167093 ↩

  19. Ludwig & Ruphy 2021; Keller 2002. - Ludwig, David; Ruphy, Stéphanie (2021). "Scientific pluralism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2024 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-pluralism/ ↩

  20. Piaget 1918. - Piaget, Jean (1918). Recherche (PDF) (in French). Lausanne: Édition La Concorde. p. 59. OCLC 2565864. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-06-29. Retrieved 9 February 2017. http://www.fondationjeanpiaget.ch/fjp/site/textes/VE/JP_18_Recherche.pdf ↩

  21. Braun & Baribeau 1984. - Braun, Claude M. J.; Baribeau, Jacinthe M. C. (Summer 1984). "The classification of psychology among the sciences from Francis Bacon to Boniface Kedrov". Journal of Mind and Behavior. 5 (3): 245–259 (252–254). JSTOR 43853037. https://www.academia.edu/27010916 ↩

  22. Kitchener 1981. - Kitchener, Richard F. (September 1981). "The nature and scope of genetic epistemology". Philosophy of Science. 48 (3): 400–415 (413). doi:10.1086/289007. JSTOR 186987. S2CID 144785292. Nowhere does Piaget suggest that sociology can be reduced to psychology, but instead refers to 'psycho-sociology'. https://doi.org/10.1086%2F289007 ↩

  23. Nicolescu 2002, p. 1: "The term transdisciplinary first appeared three decades ago in the works of such varied scholars as Jean Piaget, Edgar Morin, and Erich Jantsch." - Nicolescu, Basarab (2002). Manifesto of transdisciplinarity. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791452611. OCLC 46872261. https://archive.org/details/manifestooftrans0000nico ↩

  24. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  25. Bunge 2003, pp. 4, 250. - Bunge, Mario (2003). Emergence and convergence: qualitative novelty and the unity of knowledge. Toronto studies in philosophy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442674356. ISBN 0802088600. OCLC 52411064. https://archive.org/details/emergenceconverg0000bung ↩

  26. Cat 2017. - Cat, Jordi (2017). "The unity of science". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-unity/ ↩

  27. Bunge 2003, p. 40. - Bunge, Mario (2003). Emergence and convergence: qualitative novelty and the unity of knowledge. Toronto studies in philosophy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442674356. ISBN 0802088600. OCLC 52411064. https://archive.org/details/emergenceconverg0000bung ↩

  28. O'Connor 2020. - O'Connor, Timothy (2020). "Emergent properties". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/properties-emergent/ ↩