A Problem for Generic Generalisations in Scientific Communication
(2023) In Journal of Applied Philosophy 40(1). p.123-132- Abstract
- Generic generalisations like ‘Opioids are highly addictive’ are very useful in scientific communication, but they can often be interpreted in many different ways. Although this is not a problem when all interpretations provide the same answer to the question under discussion, a problem arises when a generic generalisation is used to answer a question other than that originally intended. In such cases, some interpretations of the generalisation might answer the question in a way that the original speaker would not endorse. Rather than excising generic generalisations from scientific communication, I recommend that scientific communicators carefully consider the kinds of questions their words might be taken to answer and try to avoid... (More)
- Generic generalisations like ‘Opioids are highly addictive’ are very useful in scientific communication, but they can often be interpreted in many different ways. Although this is not a problem when all interpretations provide the same answer to the question under discussion, a problem arises when a generic generalisation is used to answer a question other than that originally intended. In such cases, some interpretations of the generalisation might answer the question in a way that the original speaker would not endorse. Rather than excising generic generalisations from scientific communication, I recommend that scientific communicators carefully consider the kinds of questions their words might be taken to answer and try to avoid phrasing that might be taken to provide unintended answers. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1bd75382-65c2-4bc0-aecc-3e7d324571af
- author
- Bowker, Mark LU
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Applied Philosophy
- volume
- 40
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 10 pages
- publisher
- Wiley
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85137020028
- ISSN
- 0264-3758
- DOI
- 10.1111/japp.12616
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 1bd75382-65c2-4bc0-aecc-3e7d324571af
- date added to LUP
- 2023-02-01 15:52:44
- date last changed
- 2023-10-26 15:00:32
@article{1bd75382-65c2-4bc0-aecc-3e7d324571af,
abstract = {{Generic generalisations like ‘Opioids are highly addictive’ are very useful in scientific communication, but they can often be interpreted in many different ways. Although this is not a problem when all interpretations provide the same answer to the question under discussion, a problem arises when a generic generalisation is used to answer a question other than that originally intended. In such cases, some interpretations of the generalisation might answer the question in a way that the original speaker would not endorse. Rather than excising generic generalisations from scientific communication, I recommend that scientific communicators carefully consider the kinds of questions their words might be taken to answer and try to avoid phrasing that might be taken to provide unintended answers.}},
author = {{Bowker, Mark}},
issn = {{0264-3758}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{123--132}},
publisher = {{Wiley}},
series = {{Journal of Applied Philosophy}},
title = {{A Problem for Generic Generalisations in Scientific Communication}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/japp.12616}},
doi = {{10.1111/japp.12616}},
volume = {{40}},
year = {{2023}},
}