Facing Up to Complexity: Integration of Theories

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In this project, Mitchell investigates two cases of biological complexity: social insect societies and ecological systems. She argues that a new perspective on the relationship among scientific theories is needed to replace both reductionism and isolationism. Integrative pluralism is a view that acknowledges the partial autonomy of the scientific study of different levels of organization and analysis, but nevertheless supports integration in the generation of explanations of concrete, complex phenomena. In the two case studies Mitchell aims to detect patterns of integrative strategies used in contemporary biology and to further articulate an analytic framework for understanding the complex relations in which the variety of theories and explanations stand.