Skip to main content

Imagination in Science

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
A Theory of Imagining, Knowing, and Understanding

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Psychology ((BRIEFSTHEORET))

Abstract

This chapter comments on the book from the perspective of the developments in philosophy of science and intercultural communication. It raises a number of issues to be further discussed in order to continue inquiry into Tateo’s approach. It discusses how imaginative processes are engaged in modeling work in science. It also shows how, facing the environmental challenges that require an innovative thinking, relational empathy can play a rather important role in co-construction of knowledge and understanding through transdisciplinary processes.

History, Philosophy and Biology Teaching Lab, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Bahia, and National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution/INCT IN-TREE, Brazil

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agrawal, A. (1995). Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge. Dev. Chang., 26(3), 413–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, E. N. (1996). Ecologies of the heart: Emotion, belief, and the environment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailer-Jones, D. M. (1999). Tracing the development of models in the philosophy of science. In L. Magnani, N. J. Nersessian, & P. Thagard (Eds.), Model-based reasoning in scientific discovery (pp. 23–40). New York, NY: Kluwer and Plenum.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bailer-Jones, D. M. (2009). Scientific models in philosophy of science. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, M. J. (1979). Overcoming the golden rule: Sympathy and empathy. In D. Nimmo (Ed.), Communication yearbook 3 (pp. 407–422). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkes, F. (2012). Sacred ecology. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Boumans, M. (1999). Built-in justifications. In M. S. Morgan & M. Morrison (Eds.), Models as mediators: Perspectives on natural and social science (pp. 66–96). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Broome, B. J. (1991). Building shared meaning: Implications of a relational approach to empathy for teaching intercultural communication. Commun. Educ., 40, 235–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cartwright, N. (1983). How the laws of physics Lie? Oxford: Clarendon.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Casmir, F. L. (1999). Foundations for the study of intercultural communication based on a third-culture building model. Int. J. Intercult. Relat., 23, 91–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, D. (1984). Inquiries into truth & interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Regt, H. W. (2017). Understanding scientific understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • DeTurk, S. (2001). Intercultural empathy: Myth, competency, or possibility for alliance building? Commun. Educ., 50(4), 374–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gavin, M. C., McCarter, J., Mead, A., Berkes, F., Stepp, J. R., Peterson, D., & Tang, R. (2015). Defining biocultural approaches to conservation. Trends Ecol. Evol., 30(3), 140–145.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gergen, K. (1985). The social constructionist movement in modern psychology. Am. Psychol., 40, 266–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giere, R. N. (1988). Explaining science: A cognitive approach. Chicago, IL/London, UK: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Giere, R. N. (2004). How models are used to represent reality. Philos. Sci., 71, 742–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, J. K., & Justi, R. (2016). Modelling-based teaching in science education. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, S. J. (2002). The structure of evolutionary theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Greco, J. (2014). Episteme: Knowledge and understanding. In K. Timpe & C. A. Boyd (Eds.), Virtues and their vices (pp. 285–302). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunn, E. (2014). To know them is to love them. Ethnobiology Letters, 5, 146–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hutchison, A. (2014). The Whanganui river as a legal person. Alternative Law Journal, 39(3), 179–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, T. (2016). Evidence. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/evidence/. Accessed October 13th 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J. (1996). Philosophy of mind. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knuuttila, T. (2005a). Models as epistemic artefacts: Toward a non-representationalist account of scientific representation. [Ph.D. Thesis]. Helsinki: University of Helsinki.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knuuttila, T. (2005b). Models, representation, and mediation. Philos. Sci., 72(5), 1260–1271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knuuttila, T. (2011). Modelling and representing: An artefactual approach to model-based representation. Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci., 42(2), 262–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knuuttila, T., & Voutilainen, A. (2003). A parser as an epistemic artifact: A material view on models. Philos. Sci., 70(5), 1484–1495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohn, E. (2013). How forests think. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kopf, D. W., & Park, M.-S. (1984). Cross-cultural communication: An introduction to the fundamentals. Seoul: Han Shin Publishing Co..

    Google Scholar 

  • Kvanvig, J. L. (2003). The value of knowledge and the pursuit of understanding: The gettier problem and the value of knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lapoujade, M. N. (1988). Filosofía de la imaginación. In Cerro del Agua. Mexico: Siglo XXI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig, D. (2016). Overlapping ontologies and indigenous knowledge. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 59, 36–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig, D., & El-Hani, C. N. (in press). Philosophy of ethnobiology: Understanding knowledge integration and its limitations. J. Ethnobiol.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAllister, J. W. (2012). Thought experiment and the exercise of imagination in science. In M. Frappier, L. Meynell, & J. R. Brown (Eds.), Thought experiments in philosophy, science, and the arts (pp. 11–29). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitteroecker, P., & Huttegger, S. M. (2009). The concept of morphospaces in evolutionary and developmental biology: Mathematics and metaphors. Biol. Theory, 4(1), 54–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, M. (2007). Where have all the theories gone? Philos. Sci., 74(2), 195–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, M., & Morgan, M. S. (1999). Models as mediating instruments. In M. S. Morgan & M. Morrison (Eds.), Models as mediators: Perspectives on natural and social science (pp. 10–37). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Nadasdy, P. (1999). The politics of TEK. Power and the ‘integration’ of knowledge. Arct. Anthropol., 36, 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadasdy, P. (2005). The anti-politics of TEK. Anthropologica, 47, 215–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poliseli, L. (2018). When ecology and philosophy meet: Constructing explanations and assessing understanding in scientific practice. [Ph.D. thesis]. Salvador, Brazil: Federal University of Bahia/State University of Feira de Santana, Graduate Studies Program in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poliseli, L. (2019). Scientific understanding in the context of ongoing practices: From – what to – how. Manuscript submitted to Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poliseli, L., Coutinho, J. G., E., Viana, B., Russo, F., & El-Hani, C. N. (2019). Mechanistic explanations for modeling practices in biology. Manuscript in preparation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pritchard, D. (2009). Knowledge, understanding and epistemic value. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 64, 19–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H. (1981). Reason, truth and history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rist, S., & Dahdouh-Guebas, F. (2006). Ethnosciences––A step towards the integration of scientific and indigenous forms of knowledge in the management of natural resources for the future. Environ. Dev. Sustain., 8, 467–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schnellert, L. M., Butler, D. L., Stephanie, K., & Higginson, S. K. (2008). Co-constructors of data, co-constructors of meaning: Teacher professional development in an age of accountability. Teach. Teach. Educ., 24, 725–750.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sepper, D. L. (2013). Understanding imagination. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson, L. (2003). Twelve conceptions of imagination. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 43(3), 238–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suppe, F. (1989). The semantic conception of theories and scientific realism. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tateo, L. (2015). The nature of generalization in psychology. In G. Marsico, R. Andrisano Ruggieri, & S. Salvatore (Eds.), Reflexivity and psychology (pp. 45–64). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tateo, L. (2016). What imagination can teach us about higher mental functions. In J. Valsiner, G. Marsico, N. Chaudhary, T. Sato, & V. Dazzani (Eds.), Psychology as the science of human being: The yokohama manifesto (pp. 149–164). New York, NY: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Valsiner, J. (1994). Bidirectional cultural transmission and constructive sociogenesis. In W. de Graaf & R. Maier (Eds.), Sociogenesis reexamined (pp. 47–70). New York, NY: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • van Fraassen, B. (1980). The scientific image. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (2004). Imagination and creativity in childhood. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 42(1), 7–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, S. (2008). Research Is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winther, R. G. (2016). The structure of scientific theories. In E. N. Zalta (ed), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/structure-scientific-theories/. Accessed October 13th 2019

  • Wolverton, S., Nolan, J. M., & Ahmed, W. (2014). Ethnobiology, political ecology, and conservation. J. Ethnobiol., 34(2), 125–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolverton, S., Figueroa, R. M., & Swentzell, P. (2016). Archaeology, heritage, and moral terrains: Two cases from the Mesa Verde region. Ethnobiol Lett, 7(2), 23–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Luana Poliseli is grateful for the doctoral grant conceived by the Brazilian Coordination for Improvement of Higher Personnel (CAPES, Finance Code 001) and for the interuniversity exchange financial support conceived by the Interuniversity Exchange Program (PDSE, Process n. {88881.123457/2016-01}). Charbel N. El-Hani thanks the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for Productivity in Research Grant (n. 303011/2017-3) and for support to the National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (INCT IN-TREE) (n. 465767/2014-1). And, for support to INCT IN-TREE, he also thanks the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) (n. 23038.000776/2017-54).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luana Poliseli .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Poliseli, L., El-Hani, C.N. (2020). Imagination in Science. In: A Theory of Imagining, Knowing, and Understanding. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38025-0_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics