TITLE:
A Deep Unity between Scientific Disciplines
AUTHORS:
Cédric Gaucherel
KEYWORDS:
Scientific Law; Unicity; Contingency; Universality; Neutral Model; Evolution; Gravitation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.3 No.3,
July
31,
2013
ABSTRACT: Are scientific disciplines really different? This question often crystallizes into the old debate: Are Physics and Biology different? If Physics and Biology worked on highly different entities (objects), or if they had highly different methods, it would be straightforward to close the debate by a negative answer. However, if we cannot identify any differences, we should explore more deeply the status of the laws found in Physics and questioned in Biology. By slightly modifying the definition of what is a law, I argue here that both disciplines possess some laws exhibiting various “degrees of confirmation”. I finally propose explanations for why P and B give the illusion differing radically, although they both belong to the same continuum of a unified scientific domain.