4 - Ecological science is value laden

Summary

community ecology currently has neither unambiguous definitions of basic concepts (see chapter 2), nor a precise, testable general theory capable of providing specific predictions in environmental applications (see chapter 3). Indeed, there may never be a confirmed general theory of ecology, despite the heuristic power of a number of candidate theories. As one ecologist put it, “the search for general theories languishes” (Murray 1986, p. 146). This search is in trouble, in part for the reason that Schoener (1972) recognized two decades ago; ecology has a “constipating accumulation of untested models,” most of which are untestable. Models have other virtues besides testability, of course, but the fact that so few models in ecology are testable suggests that Woodwell (1978) may have been right when he spoke of ecology's being in a state of “paradigms lost.”

Will hypothesis deduction solve most problems of ecology?

Cognizant of the conceptual and theoretical difficulties besetting their discipline, a number of ecologists have claimed that it is beginning to get on track. They have argued that community ecology is becoming more of a predictive science (Kolata 1974; see Mclntosh in Saarinen 1982), and that it is developing and ought to develop along hypothetico-deductive (H-D) lines (Fretwell 1975; see Haines-Young and Petch 1980; Romesburg 1981). Cody and Diamond (1975; see Mclntosh 1982, p. 27) have boldly proclaimed that, largely because of the work of MacArthur, ecology is becoming more predictive and quantitative and hence is progressing along H-D lines.