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Taking Analogical Inference Seriously: Darwin's Argument From Artificial Selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

C. Kenneth Waters
C. Kenneth Waters*
Affiliation:
John Carroll University
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Extract

“The question for us,” as Ronald Giere writes in Understanding Scientific Reasoning, “is whether analogies play any role in the JUSTIFICATION of [a] new theory.” Giere’s answer is an emphatic “No.” (Giere 1984, pp. 79-80). Although most philosophers of science would probably qualify Giere’s unmitigated rejection of analogical justification, few attribute much significance to analogical arguments in science. And when philosophers do grudgingly acknowledge an analogical argument, they are hesitant to analyze it.

Take, for example, Charles Darwin’s argument for natural selection. It is difficult to deny that the analogy between artificial and natural selection played an important justificatory role. After all, artificial selectibn was the topic of the first chapter of Darwin’s Origin of Species and was referred to in countless arguments throughout the text.2

Type
Part VIII. Biology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1986 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1986 , 1986 , pp. 502 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1986

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Footnotes

1

I thank Fred Churchill and Michael Ruse for helpful comments on an early ancestor of this paper.

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