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Making empirical progress in observational ecology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2008

M. AARON MACNEIL
M. AARON MACNEIL*
Affiliation:
National Research Council, NOAA Panama City Laboratory, 3500 Delwood Beach Road, Panama City Beach, FL, 32408, USA
*
*Correspondence: Dr Aaron MacNeil Tel: +1 850 234 6541 ext. 257 Fax: +1 850 235 3559 e-mail: [email protected]
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Extract

Epistemology, the theory of how knowledge arises, is an issue that ecologists and environmental scientists may not often consider in their work. However, beliefs about epistemology play a direct role in how they conduct research and, consciously or not, the conclusions made through analysis reflect some form of epistemology. I argue that the Popperian epistemology by which most environmental scientists are trained is generally incompatible with research on observational data and that observation-based studies can be improved by modifying Popper's notion of falsification.

Type
EC Perspectives
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , September 2008 , pp. 193 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2008

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