Abstract
This introduction aims at raising the central questions that will be discussed throughout the book in a variety of ways, adapted to each scientific discipline. What is experimentation, and what distinguishes it from observation in different disciplines? What epistemic status should experimentation have in relation to theory? In which institutional framework do experimental practices find their place? To answer these questions, we first detail the various functions of experimentation, abandoning the idea that it can be reduced to the sole function of validating certain theoretical statements – those that correspond to the researchers’ hypotheses. The key word here is diversity, which is evident on several levels: that of the nature of the objects studied, that of the instrumentation and that of the aims pursued in the different sciences, whether natural sciences or human and social sciences.
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Notes
- 1.
Indeed, one cannot exclude rare natural occurrences such as what seems to have been, for example, the existence of a natural nuclear reactor in Gabon in a very particular geological context, more than two million years ago. See, Gauthier-Lafaye et al. (1997).
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme d’Alsace (MISHA) for financing a collaborative research program on the question of experimentation. Our thanks also go to Nicolas Monteix and to the Institut Universitaire de France who contributed to the financing of this volume. Thanks to Peter Keating for having translated the chapters, revised by the authors, and to Jutta Schickore for having read the texts and suggested useful stylistic suggestions.
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Allamel-Raffin, C., Gangloff, JL., Gingras, Y. (2024). The Characteristics and Diversity of Experimentation in the Sciences. In: Allamel-Raffin, C., Gangloff, JL., Gingras, Y. (eds) Experimentation in the Sciences. Archimedes, vol 72. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58505-0_1
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