Philosophy of science

This study intervenes into the debate regarding the definition of pluralism in ecological economics and how that definition affects various characterizations of ecological economics. The methodological pluralist camp argue for the inclusion of neoclassical economics into the ecological economics fold, while the critical pluralist camp argue against the inclusion of neoclassical economics. This study provides a critical exposition of the preanalytical visions of neoclassical and ecological economics that includes their respective ontological and epistemological foundations. Those foundations are critically scrutinized for coherence, realism and relevance, and their respective ability to analyze complex systems. It is argued that combining neoclassical and ecological economics renders ecological economics incoherent, and that neoclassical economics fails the test of realism, and its conceptual apparatus is only capable of analyzing simple systems. It is also argued that ecological economics is coherent, passes the test of realism because it is ontologically, socio-historically, and descriptively realistic, and the conceptual apparatus of institutionalist ecological economics incorporates complex systems. It is concluded that practitioners of ecological economics ought to reject and jettison neoclassical economics from their fold and to develop closer connections to and alliances with practitioners of heterodox economics.

Keywords: Ecological Economics, Ontology, Coherence, Realism, Systems Thinking.

Author Keywords: Coherence, Ecological Economics, Ontology, Systems Thinking

This dissertation presents the work of the American science fiction writer Neal Stephenson as a case study of mediations between literature and science by mobilizing its resonances with contemporary science studies and media theory. Tracing the historical and thematic trajectory of his consecutively published novels Snow Crash (1992), The Diamond Age; or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995), Cryptonomicon (1999), Quicksilver: The Baroque Cycle I (2003), The Confusion: The Baroque Cycle II (2004), and The System of the World: The Baroque Cycle III (2004), it approaches Stephenson's fiction as an archaeology of the deep history of science that leads from late twentieth-century cyberculture, to world-war-two cryptography, and the seventeenth-century rise of the Royal Society. Refracted through a parallel reading of Stephenson's novels and the theoretical work of Michel Serres, Bruno Latour, Friedrich A. Kittler, Isabelle Stengers, Donna Haraway, and others, this dissertation offers a literary discussion of the relations among cybernetics, complexity theory, information theory, systems theory, Leibnizian metaphysics, and Newtonian alchemy. Recognizing these hybrid fields as central to contemporary dialogues between the natural sciences and the humanities, Stephenson's work is shown to exhibit a consistent engagement with the feedback loops among physical, artistic, narratological, and epistemological processes of innovation and emergence. Through his portrayal of hackers, mathematicians, natural philosophers, alchemists, vagabonds, and couriers as permutations of trickster figures, this dissertation advances a generalized notion of boundary transgressions and media infrastructures to illustrate how newness emerges by way of the turbulent con-fusion of disciplines, genres, knowledge systems, historical linearities, and physical environments. Uninterested in rigid genre boundaries, Stephenson's novels are explored through the links among artistic modes that range from cyberpunk, to hard science fiction, historiographic metafiction, the carnivalesque, and the baroque. In a metabolization of the work performed by science studies, Stephenson's fiction foregrounds that scientific practice is always intimately entangled in narrative, politics, metaphor, myth, and the circulation of a multiplicity of human and nonhuman agents. As the first sustained analysis of this segment of Stephenson's work, this dissertation offers a contribution to both science fiction studies and the wider field of literature and science.

Author Keywords: Complexity Theory, Cyberpunk, Michel Serres, Neal Stephenson, Science Fiction, Science Studies

Forensic epistemology is the study of knowledge as it relates to forensic science and can be broken into four sources; intuitive, authoritative, logical and empirical. In a four-phase research approach, I explored reasoning skills (logical knowledge) used by crime scene experts and methods (empirical knowledge) for forensic case-specific experimentation. First, the reasoning skills of crime scene investigators (CSI) and bloodstain pattern analysts (BPA) were tested, correlated to demographics and reasoning categories were compared. Practitioner's with graduate level education performed better on the reasoning test, however, significant differences were not found between test scores and years of experience. Similarly, there was no difference between test scores and employment status (specifically, police or civilian employees), for the CSI group nor within the BPA group. This information suggests that level of education plays the most important role in the development and use of reasoning skills, whereas experience and employment status are not as influential. Second, I investigate potential strategies in selecting data types for case-specific experimentation in pattern-interpretation disciplines within forensic science. I also examined the epistemic status of practitioner case experimentation in forensic science. Practitioners were more confident in a mixed-method approach when conducting case-specific experimentation. In addition, there is a knowledge gap in experimental design for some forensic practitioners. Third, is a reprint of the introductory section of my published book entitled The Scientific Method in Forensic Science: A Canadian Handbook that abridges knowledge gained from this dissertation with further evidence-based literature review and experiential examples. This phase summarizes the scientific method in forensic science and provides guidance for forensic science students and practitioners. The final phase merges the findings from the primary studies with a literature review; offering scientific evidence supporting suggested research and pedagogic strategies that can help increase the epistemic status of forensic science.

Author Keywords: case-specific research, epistemology, forensic science, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, logic, research models