METAPHYSICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE CONCEPT OF HISTORICAL NATURAL SCIENCE BY CAROL CLELAND
Vasiliy Anatolievich Mironov1,2
1Novosibirsk National Research State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
2Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Keywords: historical natural science, “smoking gun”, common cause, philosophy of geology, philosophy of science
Abstract
The article provides a philosophical and methodological analysis of the concept of historical natural science by the American researcher C. Cleland. In her view, natural historical hypotheses, i.e. hypotheses about the past of nature, can be empirically proven or refuted, but the character of such empirical evidence differs significantly from repeated experimental verifications or falsifications. To clarify her position, Cleland uses the notion of asymmetry of overdetermination. The metaphysical meaning of the asymmetry of overdetermination in the discussed concept is that events in nature develop from one root towards constant branching. In turn, the epistemological meaning of this notion is expressed in the fact that, relying on metaphysical ideas about the temporal asymmetry of nature, natural historians should search for a common cause of events through finding strong evidence left behind - smoking guns, i.e. evidence that will allow a clear choice to be made between competing hypotheses
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