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Contextualising the Teaching and Learning of Ecology: Historical and Philosophical Considerations

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International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching

Abstract

Ecology has gradually gained salience during the last few decades and ecological issues, including land use changes, global warming, biodiversity loss, food shortage, and so forth, seem to be gaining public attention. Though philosophers of science had given little attention to ecology, there is a lot of interesting work being currently pursued in philosophy of ecology and environmental philosophy. As Colyvan and colleagues put it, “ecology is an important and fascinating branch of biology, with distinctive philosophical issues” (Colyvan et al. 2009, p. 21). Given its conceptual and methodological familiarity with the social sciences, ecology occupies a unique position among other disciplines (Cooper 2003).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example, Ayala (2009), Brandon (1994), Haila (1982), McIntosh (1987), Peters (1991) and Price and Billick (2010).

  2. 2.

    For a comprehensive review of the semantic view literature, see Godfrey-Smith (2006).

  3. 3.

    Various interesting perspectives focus on theory construction per se and distinguish between modelling and other kinds of theoretical practices (e.g. see Weisberg and Reisman’s (2008) discussion on the difference between modelling and abstract direct representation and Godfrey-Smith’s (2006) critique of the semantic view’s formalism).

  4. 4.

    This is not to say that philosophers of science are in a better shape; as Godfrey-Smith (2006) wrote, ‘The term ‘model’ is surely one of the most contested in all of philosophy of science’ (Godfrey-Smith 2006, p.725).

  5. 5.

    Richard Levins is a well-known theoretical population biologist who has contributed significantly to our attempts to understand and influence complex systems. His work has often crossed disciplinary boundaries and actively integrates issues of history, philosophy and sociology of science. As Haila and Taylor (2001, p.98) wrote: “…in his research, concrete questions, theory and philosophy go hand in hand… (while his) pioneering role in developing ideas on ecological complexity is widely known” (Haila and Taylor 2001, p. 98).

  6. 6.

    See, for example, Levins (1970, 1993, 2006).

  7. 7.

    See, for example, Godfrey-Smith (2006), Justus (2006), Haila and Taylor (2001), Odenbaugh (2003, 2005, 2006), Orzack and Sober (1993), Palladino (1991), Taylor (2000), Weisberg (2006a, b), Winther (2006), and Wimsatt (1981, 1987).

  8. 8.

    In this context (Levins 1966, 1993) one could arguably suggest that generality refers to the number of real-world systems a model applies to. Realism refers to the representational accuracy of a model, i.e. how well the structure of a model represents the structure of a target system. Finally, precision could be understood as fineness of specification.

  9. 9.

    The issue of explanatory success of highly idealised models is a very interesting discussion that cannot be undertaken here. However, we briefly note that even these models may have explanatory power if our idealisations do not affect the basic causal relationships or if we see our explanations as sketches of an explanation.

  10. 10.

    As Taylor (2000) suggested, accessory conditions are very easily overlooked; however they are actually what makes modelling possible. Such conditions in the case of ecology may assume, for example, a uniform and constant environment in space and time.

  11. 11.

    An exemplary sequence of this approach on model-based inquiry can be found here: http://scy-net.eu/scenarios/index.php/Grasp_a_Model.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Ageliki Lefkaditou

  2. Department of Education, University of Cyprus, Nikosia, Cyprus

    Konstantinos Korfiatis

  3. Department of Primary Education, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Tasos Hovardas

Authors
  1. Ageliki Lefkaditou
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  2. Konstantinos Korfiatis
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  3. Tasos Hovardas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Konstantinos Korfiatis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Michael R. Matthews

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Lefkaditou, A., Korfiatis, K., Hovardas, T. (2014). Contextualising the Teaching and Learning of Ecology: Historical and Philosophical Considerations. In: Matthews, M. (eds) International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7654-8_17

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