Models in action

an eco-cognitive outlook on experimental science

pp. 67-86

in: Tommaso Bertolotti, Patterns of rationality, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

Current scientific practice is often identified with the experimental framework. Yet, what "experimenting" means could be less than perfectly clear. Going beyond the common sense conception of experiment, two broad categories of experiments can be tentatively identified: the generative experiment and the demonstrative experiment. While the former aims at generating new knowledge, new corroborations of hypotheses etc., the latter–which is actually the kind of experiment most laypeople came to terms with in their lives–is designed so that, by being successful, it reverberates knowledge on the experimenters/witnesses, thus instructing them, albeit the experimental outcome was well known before- hand. Prima facie the uninformed observer may not always be able to tell whether an experiment is generative or demonstrative , therefore the existing distinction must rely on something else, namely the framework they are embedded into. The concept of epistemic warfare can be of help in investigating this distinction, also to the scope of showing that it is not a sterile dichotomy but rather a theoretically fruitful continuum, and can help the analysis of epistemically relevant issues such as the repetition /replication of experiments and their potential failure .