As a discipline distinct from ecology, conservation biology emerged in the 1980s as a rigorous science focused on protecting biodiversity. Two algorithmic breakthroughs in information processing made this possible: place-prioritization algorithms and geographical information systems. They provided defensible, data-driven methods for designing reserves to conserve biodiversity that obviated the need for largely intuitive and highly problematic appeals to ecological theory at the time. But the scientific basis of these achievements and whether they constitute genuine scientific progress has been criticized. We counter by pointing out important inaccuracies about the science and rejecting the apparent theory-first focus. More broadly, the case study reveals significant limitations of the predominant epistemic-semantic conceptions of scientific progress and the considerable merits of pragmatic, practically-oriented accounts.

作为一门有别于生态学的学科，保护生物学出现于 1980 年代，是一门专注于保护生物多样性的严谨科学。信息处理方面的两个算法突破使这成为可能：地点优先算法和地理信息系统。他们提供了可靠的、数据驱动的方法来设计保护区以保护生物多样性，从而避免了当时对生态理论的大量直观和高度成问题的诉求。但这些成就的科学基础以及它们是否构成真正的科学进步一直受到批评。我们通过指出有关科学的重要不准确之处并拒绝明显的理论优先焦点来反驳。更广泛地，