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American Zoologist 1985 25(3):727-736; doi:10.1093/icb/25.3.727
© 1985 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Models and Myths of Science: Views of the Elephant1

JAMES W. ATKINSON
Department of Natural Science, Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 48824

I discuss selected philosophies of science in terms of the role of rationalism in science and the reality status of the products of scientific reasoning. A model is then presented in which I argue that creativity in science involves the mental manipulation of images which are later compared to the shared empirical experience of the scientific community. The assimilation of a scientific concept involves a re-creation of the concept through a similar manipulation of images and empirical experience. The process of recreation can distort the original concept. The result of this process of creation and recreation is neither an objective discovery of truth nor a subjective invention of truth but an interactive reality composed of the inquiring human mind and an objectively unknowable nature. Since the model or myth of science we accept influences many aspects of the science-society interaction, the model I present here as well as models presented by others ought to be carefully evaluated through the study of the history of science.


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