Testing Methods: The Evaluation of Discovery Operations in Evolutionary Biology

Abstract

Scientific discovery requires both abstract, theoretically defined concepts and discovery operations formed by sets of rules that permit the empirical detection of instances of those concepts. In this paper, I examine the ontological status of discovery operations and the tests employed to evaluate them in evolutionary biology. Attention is drawn to the distinction between nomothetic (universal, predictive) and ideographic (historical, retrodictive) discovery operations, and between complementary and exclusive discovery operations. Three types of tests of discovery operations are commonly employed in evolutionary biology. Theoretical tests aim to show that a discovery operation is inconsistent with accepted, well‐corroborated, empirical theories. Empirical tests evaluate the performance of competing discovery operations in terms of their results when applied to the same empirical data sets. Philosophical tests aim to show that an operation is inconsistent with logical and epistemological principles. Appropriately designed theoretical and philosophical tests of ideographic discovery operations may be scientifically valid. Empirical tests, however, are incapable of evaluating the scientific merits of competing discovery operations. Nonetheless, empirical comparisons (not tests ) of competing discovery operations may provide insight into the ways discovery operations may be misleading and therefore may play an important role in stimulating critical debate and eventually establishing a scientifically optimal operation. In practice, theoretical and philosophical tests are often combined to test competing discovery operations as rigorously as possible.