A Problem for Generic Generalisations in Scientific Communication
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21497583 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mike Bowker (0000-0002-8556-8724, New College of the Humanities London UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 123-132 |
| Publication date | 2023-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Applied Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0264-3758 • E-ISSN: 1468-5930 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/japp.12616 |
| OpenAlex | W4293705618 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
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
Cognitive science · Epistemology · Scientific communication · Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies · Computer Science · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |