Society for the Philosophy of Science in Practice Session. This symposium brings together an interdisciplinary panel to explore novel approaches to the production of knowledge through fossil-based paleontological practices. In contrast to previous philosophical focus on incompleteness of the fossil record, we emphasize that fossils are material objects, prepared and constructed towards paleontological goals. Towards this, Watkins brings recent work in the philosophy of data to bear on fossils, arguing that they should be understood as data models, while Wylie uses her ethnographic research on fossil preparators to apply the relational view of data to the case of fossils. Erwin considers how the kinds of questions paleontologists ask of fossil data have themselves been revised over time. As Currie argues, this suggests paleontology should be understood as a 'fossil-driven' practice, where the availability of, perspectives on, and analyses of fossils fundamentally shape paleontological knowledge production. Taken together, these perspectives both suggest a new picture of how practical activities and goals shape fossil data in particular, and further elucidate our understanding of scientific data more generally. To conclude, Page will offer commentary on the collected talks before leading a panel-style discussion period.
Society for the Philosophy of Science in Practice Session. This symposium brings together an interdisciplinary panel to explore novel approaches to the production of knowledge through fossil-based paleontological practices. In contrast to previous philosophical focus on incompleteness of the fossil record, we emphasize that fossils are material objects, prepared and constructed towards paleontological goals. Towards this, Watkins brings recent work in the philosophy of data to bear on fossils, arguing that they should be understood as data models, while Wylie uses her ethnographic research on fossil preparators to apply the relational view of data to the case of fossils. Erwin considers how the kinds of questions paleontologists ask of fossil data have themselves been revised over time. As Currie argues, this suggests paleontology should be understood as a 'fossil-driven' practice, where the availability of, perspectives on, and analyses of fossils fundamentally shape paleontological knowledge production. Taken together, these perspectives both suggest a new picture of how practical activities and goals shape fossil data in particular, and further elucidate our understanding of scientific data more generally. To conclude, Page will offer commentary on the collected talks before leading a panel-style discussion period.
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