“Just-so” stories about “inner cognitive Africa”: some doubts about Sorensen's evolutionary epistemology of thought experiments [Book Review]

Biology and Philosophy 12 (2):207-224 (1997)
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Abstract

Roy Sorensen advances an evolutionary explanation of our capacity for thought experiments which doubles as a naturalized epistemological justification. I argue Sorensens explanation fails to satisfy key elements of environmental-selectionist explanations and so fails to carry epistemic force. I then argue that even if Sorensen succeeds in showing the adaptive utility of our capacity, he still fails to establish its reliability and hence epistemic utility. I conclude Sorensens account comes to little more than a just-so story.

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Citations of this work

Thought Experiments.Rachel Cooper - 2005 - Metaphilosophy 36 (3):328-347.
Causality, Teleology, and Thought Experiments in Biology.Marco Buzzoni - 2015 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 46 (2):279-299.
The Annus Mirabilis of 1986: Thought Experiments and Scientific Pluralism.Yiftach Fehige - 2021 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 11 (1):222-240.

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References found in this work

Epistemology and cognition.Alvin I. Goldman - 1986 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
The meaning of 'meaning'.Hilary Putnam - 1975 - Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7:131-193.
Minds, brains, and programs.John Searle - 1980 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3 (3):417-57.
On Human Nature.Edward O. Wilson - 1978 - Harvard University Press.

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