Interweaving categories: Styles, paradigms, and models

Analytical categories of scientific cultures have typically been used both exclusively and universally. For instance, when styles of scientific research are employed in attempts to understand and narrate science, styles alone are usually employed. This article is a thought experiment in interweaving categories. What would happen if rather than employ a single category, we instead investigated several categories simultaneously? What would we learn about the practices and theories, the agents and materials, and the political-technological impact of science if we analyzed and applied styles (à la Hacking and Crombie), paradigms (à la Kuhn), and models (à la van Fraassen and Cartwright) simultaneously? I address these questions in general and for a specific case study: a brief history of systematics.

► Aim 1: Explores styles, paradigms, and models simultaneously. ► Aim 2: Retells the history of systematics. ► Aim 3: Investigates realization, guidance, and inheritance inter-category relations. ► Benefit 1: Interweaving categories sheds light on realism, pluralism, and practice. ► Benefit 2: Interweaving categories provides a richer historiography.