The world is complex, but acknowledging its complexity requires
an appreciation for the many roles context plays in shaping natural
phenomena. In "Unsimple Truths, "Sandra Mitchell argues that the
long-standing scientific and philosophical deference to reductive
explanations founded on simple universal laws, linear causal
models, and predict-and-act strategies fails to accommodate the
kinds of knowledge that many contemporary sciences are providing
about the world. She advocates, instead, for a new understanding
that represents the rich, variegated, interdependent fabric of many
levels and kinds of explanation that are integrated with one
another to ground effective prediction and action.
Mitchell draws from diverse fields including psychiatry, social
insect biology, and studies of climate change to defend
"integrative pluralism"--a theory of scientific practices that
makes sense of how many natural and social sciences represent the
multi-level, multi-component, dynamic structures they study. She
explains how we must, in light of the now-acknowledged complexity
and contingency of biological and social systems, revise how we
conceptualize the world, how we investigate the world, and how we
act in the world. Ultimately "Unsimple Truths "argues that the very
idea of what should count as legitimate science itself should
change.
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