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From Hacking's Plurality of Styles of Scientific Reasoning to “Foliated” Pluralism: A Philosophically Robust Form of Ontologico-Methodological Pluralism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Stéphanie Ruphy
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Abstract

This essay develops a form of scientific pluralism that captures essential features of contemporary scientific practice largely ignored by the various forms of scientific pluralism currently discussed by philosophers. My starting point is Hacking's concept of style of scientific reasoning. I extend Hacking's thesis by proposing the process of “ontological enrichment” to grasp how the objects created by a style articulate with the common objects of scientific inquiry. The result is “foliated pluralism,” which puts to the fore the transdisciplinary and cumulative ways of proceeding in science, as well as the historical dimension of the genesis of scientific objects.

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Research Article
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 78 , Issue 5 , December 2011 , pp. 1212 - 1222
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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