The institutionalisation of scientific disciplines: the development of Darwin's adaptationist programme
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2178-6224v21i1p91-109Keywords:
Philosophy of biology, Charles Robert Darwin, AdaptationAbstract
Despite Charles Darwin's theoretical and empirical works on adaptation, and despite the adaptationist research program that began in the 19th century, its consolidation took place only in the 1960s. The general issue guiding this paper concerns which elements held back the consolidation of the adaptationist program and which needed to be triggered to trigger this consolidation. The hypothesis we present departs from i) the historical orientation given by Caponi (2011) and ii) the philosophical concept of scientific disciplines by Lenoi (2003), that is, that adaptationism was only consolidated when it obtained its institutionalisation as a scientific discipline.
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