Social Epistemology 23 (2):105 – 124 (2009)
Abstract |
Despite its proliferation in technology studies, the concept of “path dependence” has scarcely been applied to epistemology. In this essay, I investigate path dependence in the production of scientific knowledge, first, by considering Kuhn's scattered remarks that lend support to a path-dependence thesis (Section I) and second by developing and criticising Kuhn's embryonic account (Sections II and III). I examine a case from high-energy physics that brings the path-dependent nature of scientific knowledge to the fore and I pay attention to two sources of path dependence—“theoretical” and “instrumental”. The latter source is particularly important in “big science”. I ask in Section IV whether path dependence in scientific knowledge can lead to circumstances like those in the technological field, in which a theory can come to dominate a scientific speciality even though it is inferior to alternatives. In Section V, I ask what implications my thesis has for science policy
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DOI | 10.1080/02691720902962813 |
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References found in this work BETA
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge.Imre Lakatos & Alan Musgrave (eds.) - 1970 - Cambridge University Press.
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (Proceedings of the International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, London 1965, Volume 4).Imre Lakatos - 1970
Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times.Steve Fuller - 2000 - University of Chicago Press.
The Self-Vindication of the Laboratory Sciences.Ian Hacking - 1992 - In Andrew Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture. University of Chicago Press. pp. 29--64.
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Citations of this work BETA
Multiple Discoveries, Inevitability, and Scientific Realism.Luca Tambolo & Gustavo Cevolani - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 90 (December 2021):30-38.
Thomas Samuel Kuhn3, o Bioeticista”: Fantasias Heterônimas Em Busca de Valores Não-Epistêmicos.Márcio Rojas Da Cruz & Gabriele Cornelli - 2011 - Filosofia Unisinos 12 (2).
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