Epistemological Considerations about Big Data and Prediction in Ecology

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the philosophical implications of the techno-scientific promises and discourses that generally surround big data, but also to nuance their content with respect to the concrete uses of these technologies in the natural sciences. To achieve this, I will rely on a case study focusing on the hopes, as well as the effective practical and theoretical issues, that accompany the development of big data and numerical models within the ecological sciences.

Keywords

• big data
• ecology
• prediction
• techno-scientific promises
• theory
• inductivism