Scientific Understanding Across Disciplines: In Varietate Concordia?
Abstract Understanding is a generally acknowledged aim of science, but the way in which understanding is pursued and criteria for when it is achieved differ widely across scientific disciplines. This paper offers a comparative analysis of this disciplinary variation, aimed at revealing differences as well as commonalities in methods and criteria for achieving understanding. Starting-point is the contextual theory of scientific understanding (De Regt 2017), which was developed to accommodate contextual variation in criteria for understanding. While De Regt’s work focused on historical variation and used mainly case studies from the history of physics, the current paper applies the contextual theory to disciplinary variation. We present brief descriptive accounts of how understanding figures in nine scientific disciplines: mathematics, theoretical physics, astrophysics, chemistry, geoscience, biology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and the engineering sciences. Subsequently, we compare and evaluate these accounts in light of the contextual theory of scientific understanding.
Authors
- Milo D. Cornelissen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6981-6487)
- Nina S. de Boer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4424-2610)
- Sebastian De Haro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3000-5967)
- Ludo L. J. Schoenmakers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6882-6840)
- Maarten G. Kleinhans (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9484-1673)
- Daniel Kostić (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5729-1476)
- Henk W. de Regt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0580-0755)
- Kristian González Barman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7277-7351)
- Paul Disberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0492-4089)
- Vincent Coumans
Institutions
- HAN University of Applied Sciences (NL)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (AT)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Institute of Philosophy and Sociology (PL)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (AU)
- Institute of Physics (NL)
- Technische Universität Berlin (DE)
- Monash University (AU)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal for General Philosophy of Science
- Published
- 2026-11-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-026-09781-9
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Philosophy and History of Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.77
Funders
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes