Author(s)

Cédric Gaucherel

UMR AMAP, écologie des forêts, prairies et milieux aquatiques, Montpellier, France.

A consensual pattern in the form of a circular map today emerges from connections between the major (high level) disciplines of science. Classifying sciences is useful in practice, but the resulting pattern in itself is rarely questioned. Here, I suggest that this pattern may, at least partly, be explained by the degree (intensity) of contingency of the objects they study. The contingency property appears to have two distinct yet interlinked origins: the major contingent events that have chronologically built our universe and the minor contingent events building every new object or phenomenon. This study provides a simple mathematical model to formalize causes generating the pattern of the global map of science. I propose to use the μ parameter of a branching process to more objectively quantify the degree of contingency of each science. Although biased by occidental culture and other confounding factors, the global pattern of sciences certainly provides crucial information on the deep nature of science.

Science Hierarchy, Scientific Law, Branching Process, Mathematics, Thought Experiment

Gaucherel, C. (2019) The Pattern of the Global Map of Science: A Matter of Contingency?. Open Journal of Philosophy, 9, 82-103. doi: 10.4236/ojpp.2019.92008.