Search Images Play News Gmail Drive Calendar Translate More »
My library | Help | Advanced Book Search | Web History | Sign in

Books

A Critique for Ecology

Front Cover
0 Reviews
Cambridge University Press, Jul 26, 1991 - Nature - 366 pages
This book offers a critique of contemporary ecology, which could be applied to any discipline. Author Peters contends that science is a device to offer information about nature through predictions, but that a substantial part of ecology cannot be science because it provides no concrete information and much of the rest of ecology provides data of such poor quality that it can only be called soft science. Although instances of these deficiencies have often been identified, the pervasiveness of the problem has not been fully acknowledged, nor have the similarities among different problem areas been appreciated. If ecology and environmental science are to grow to meet the needs of the present decade and next millennium, scientists in these fields will need much more acute critical abilities than they have yet demonstrated. Professor Peters argues specifically that a return to simple questions of fact, to observations, and to questions of general relevance to science and society can make ecology a useful, practical, and informative science, which is desperately needed to meet the problems of our age. This thought-provoking and perhaps controversial book will be of particular interest to ecologists, but all scientists, from undergraduates to senior academics and professionals, can benefit from reading it.
  

What people are saying - Write a review

We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.

Related books

Contents

Crisis in ecology
1
Some preliminary disclaimers
2
Ecologists against ecology
4
Sociological evidence against ecology
6
Evidence from the deepening environmental crisis
10
Academic ecology poses unanswerable questions
13
Summary Scientific growth depends on scientific criticism
14
Criteria
17
Legitimate roles for historical understanding in ecology
170
Summary Explanations in ecology
176
Weak predictions
178
Accuracy
189
Imprecise and qualitative predictions
196
Generality and specificity
211
Economy
216
Appeal
218

logic science and theory
18
Hypotheticodeductive science
21
Criteria for judging scientific theories
26
Summary A hierarchy of scientific criteria
36
Tautology
38
The principle of evolution by natural selection
60
Summary Two tools for two jobs
73
Operationalization of terms and concepts
74
Operationalization of concepts
76
Typologies and classifications
80
Conceptual variables stability and diversity
92
Nonoperational relationships
96
Atheoretical concepts
97
the effects of poor examples
100
Summary The costs of nonoperational concepts for ecology
104
Explanatory science reduction cause and mechanism
105
alternate goals for science
106
an unattainable goal
110
Causality
128
Instrumentalist research
136
Summary The twin perils of mechanistic and causal explanations
146
Historical explanation and understanding
147
Historical explanations and ecology
154
Summary Practicality and appeal
219
Checklist of problems
220
The Introduction
221
Methods
229
Results
235
Discussion
239
Extensions and hypotheses
250
Summary The challenge of good science
254
Putting it together competition
256
The prevalence of competition
257
Operationalization
259
Tautology
263
Historical explanation
266
Mechanisms of competition
268
The theoretical status of competition theory
270
Summary The muddles of ecology
273
Predictive ecology
274
The attractions of predictive ecology
290
Summary A scientific alternative for ecology
304
References
305
Index of names and first authors
345
Subject index
352
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 313 - NISBET. 1971. Inter-relations between developmental models in geomorphology, plant ecology and animal ecology.

References to this book

From other books

Life history invariants: some explorations of symmetry in evolutionary ecology
Mosaic landscapes and ecological processes
All Book Search results »

From Google Scholar

Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology
Antoine Guisan, Niklaus E Zimmermann - 2000 - Ecological Modelling
On Beyond BACI: Sampling Designs that Might Reliably Detect ...
AJ Underwood - 1994 - Ecological Applications
Predicting species distribution: offering more than simple habitat ...
Antoine Guisan, Wilfried Thuiller - 2005 - Ecology Letters
All Scholar search results »

References from web pages

JSTOR: A Critique for Ecology.
A critique for ecology is the culmination and recapitu- lation of a series of earlier publications by Peters. Unfor- tunately, the book is not as succinct ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0024-3590(199309)38%3A6%3C1344%3AACFE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S

A Critique for Ecology
0521400171 - A Critique for Ecology - by Robert Henry Peters Description More information. Description. This is a book of criticism. ...
assets.cambridge.org/ 97805214/ 00176/ description/ 9780521400176_description.htm

The Costs of Ignorance
A Critique for Ecology). noted that. "disdain for the older literature ... on the part of major. journals, especially. Science andnatung. show[s] that con- ...
www.blackwell-synergy.com/ doi/ pdf/ 10.1046/ j.1523-1739.1995.09030473.x

Ecology of Disturbance (Overview)
In A Critique for Ecology Peters (1991) illustrates a definition problem with ... A Critique for Ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England. ...
tiee.ecoed.net/ vol/ v1/ figure_sets/ disturb/ disturb_overview.html

Multivariate statistics for aquatic ecology
Robert Peters (1991) in his book: "A Critique for Ecology" shows .... A critique for ecology. Cambridge university press. Cambridge. 366 p. ...
www.springerlink.com/ index/ JG8756324L742K34.pdf

OBITUARY/NÉCROLOGIE
His 1991 book A Critique for Ecology synthesizes his. concerns and proposes solutions to what he (and not he alone). perceived to be the impediments that ...
uregina.ca/ ~scl/ Peters_obit%20Kalff_CJFAS96.pdf

A Critique For Ecology - Matrix
Pesquisa e compara precos de livros a critique for ecology.
matrix.jacotei.com.br/ a-critique-for-ecology-peters-robert-henry-mcgill-university-montreal-0521400171.html

Globalbook
Titulo: A Critique for Ecology. Autores: Peters. Tipo: Hardback, Peso: .666, Tamaño: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 in. Editorial: Cambridge, Numero de Paginas: 382. Precio: ...
www.globalbookstore.com.mx/ detalles.php?ISBN=0521400171

書評陳恆安
於1991年出版的A Critique for Ecology 中作者對於生態學提出極高標準的要求,在追求 一個精確的科學理論的前提下,批判了當代生態學理論中的種種弱點及不足之處,但在...
www.geocities.com/ Paris/ Cafe/ 9642/ 2buch3.html

A critique for ecology
A critique for ecology de Peters, RH. ... A critique for ecology. 1 2 3 4 5 (Sé el primero en opinar) Autor: Peters, rh. ISBN: 978-0-521-39588-5. ...
www.construmatica.com/ libros/ l/ a_critique_for_ecology/ 22141

Bibliographic information