How to Be a Successful Scientist
| Abstract | Studies in the history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology of science and technology have gathered much information about important cases of scientific development. These cases usually concern the most successful scientists and inventors, such as Darwin, Einstein, and Edison. But case studies rarely address the question of what made these investigators more accomplished than the legions of scientific laborers whose names have been forgotten. This chapter is an attempt to identify many of the psychological and other factors that make some scientists highly successful. I explore two sources of information about routes to scientific achievement. The first derives from a survey that Jeff Shrager conducted at the Workshop on Cognitive Studies of Science and Technology at the University of Virginia in March, 2001. He asked the participants to list “7 habits of highly creative people”, and after the workshop he and I compiled a list of habits recommended by the distinguished group of historians, philosophers, and psychologists at the workshop. My second source of information about the factors contributing to scientific success is advice given by three distinguished biologists who each won a Nobel prize: Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Peter Medawar, and James Watson. These biologists provide advice that usefully supplements the suggestions from the workshop participants | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | No categories specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Only published papers are available at libraries |
Similar books and articlesIan Hacking (2000). How Inevitable Are the Results of Successful Science? Philosophy of Science 67 (3):71.
William O'Donohue & Jeffrey A. Buchanan (2001). The Weaknesses of Strong Inference. Behavior and Philosophy 29:1 - 20.
Paul Thagard (2006). How to Collaborate: Procedural Knowledge in the Cooperative Development of Science. Southern Journal of Philosophy 44 (S1):177-196.
Alison Gopnik (1997). The Scientist as Child. Philosophy of Science 63 (4):485-514.
Mitsuyo Toyoda (2008). Applying Philosophy for Children to Workshop-Style Environmental Education. Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 27:101-109.
Thomas C. Leonard (2002). Reflection on Rules in Science: An Invisible-Hand Perspective. Journal of Economic Methodology 9 (2):141-168.
José A. Cruz & William J. Frey (2003). An Effective Strategy for Integrating Ethics Across the Curriculum in Engineering: An ABET 2000 Challenge. Science and Engineering Ethics 9 (4):543-568.
Joshua Knobe & Richard Samuels (forthcoming). Thinking Like a Scientist: Innateness as a Case Study. Cognition.
Nicole A. Vincent, Pim Haselager & Gert-Jan Lokhorst (2011). “The Neuroscience of Responsibility”—Workshop Report. Neuroethics 4 (2):175-178.
Seungbae Park (2003). Ontological Order in Scientific Explanation. Philosophical Papers 32 (2):157-170.
Jesús P. Zamora Bonilla (1999). The Elementary Economics of Scientific Consensus. Theoria 14 (3):461-488.
Jesús P. Zamora Bonilla (1999). The Elementary Economics of Scientific Consensus. Theoria 14 (3):461-488.
Joseph Agassi (1970). Positive Evidence in Science and Technology. Philosophy of Science 37 (2):261-270.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-12-22Total downloads13 ( #87,931 of 549,087 )Recent downloads (6 months)4 ( #19,228 of 549,087 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
