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Characterizing the Robustness of Science

After the Practice Turn in Philosophy of Science

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

Editors:
  1. Léna Soler

    1. Paris, France

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  2. Emiliano Trizio

    1. , LHPS, Archives H. Poincaré, Nancy, France

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  3. Thomas Nickles

    1. , Department of Philosophy, University of Nevada-Reno, Reno, USA

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  4. William Wimsatt

    1. , Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA

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  • First comprehensive analysis of the notion of robustness and its implications
  • Contributions by the world’s leading experts in the field
  • Shows the crucial link between the notion of robustness and the practical turn on philosophy of science

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (BSPS, volume 292)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction: The Solidity of Scientific Achievements: Structure of the Problem, Difficulties, Philosophical Implications

    • Léna Soler
    Pages 1-60

  3. Robustness, Reliability, and Overdetermination (1981)

    • William C. Wimsatt
    Pages 61-87

  4. Robustness: Material, and Inferential, in the Natural and Human Sciences

    • William C. Wimsatt
    Pages 89-104

  5. Achieving Robustness to Confirm Controversial Hypotheses: A Case Study in Cell Biology

    • Emiliano Trizio
    Pages 105-120

  6. Multiple Derivability and the Reliability and Stabilization of Theories

    • Hubertus Nederbragt
    Pages 121-145

  7. Robustness of an Experimental Result: The Example of the Tests of Bell’s Inequalities

    • Catherine Dufour†, Léna Soler
    Pages 147-167

  8. Scientific Images and Robustness

    • Catherine Allamel-Raffin, Jean-Luc Gangloff
    Pages 169-188

  9. Are We Still Babylonians? The Structure of the Foundations of Mathematics from a Wimsattian Perspective

    • Ralf Krömer
    Pages 189-206

  10. Rerum Concordia Discors: Robustness and Discordant Multimodal Evidence

    • Jacob Stegenga
    Pages 207-226

  11. Robustness of Results and Robustness of Derivations: The Internal Architecture of a Solid Experimental Proof

    • Léna Soler
    Pages 227-266

  12. Multiple Means of Determination and Multiple Constraints of Construction: Robustness and Strategies for Modeling Macromolecular Objects

    • Frédéric Wieber
    Pages 267-288

  13. Understanding Scientific Practices: The Role of Robustness Notions

    • Mieke Boon
    Pages 289-315

  14. The Robustness of Science and the Dance of Agency

    • Andrew Pickering
    Pages 317-327

  15. Dynamic Robustness and Design in Nature and Artifact

    • Thomas Nickles
    Pages 329-360

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 361-372
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Keywords

About this book

Mature sciences have been long been characterized in terms of the “successfulness”, “reliability” or “trustworthiness” of their theoretical, experimental or technical accomplishments. Today many philosophers of science talk of “robustness”, often without specifying in a precise way the meaning of this term. This lack of clarity is the cause of frequent misunderstandings, since all these notions, and that of robustness in particular, are connected to fundamental issues, which concern nothing less than the very nature of science and its specificity with respect to other human practices, the nature of rationality and of scientific progress; and science’s claim to be a truth-conducive activity. This book offers for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the problem of robustness, and in general, that of the reliability of science, based on several detailed case studies and on philosophical essays inspired by the so-called practical turn in philosophy of science.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Paris, France

    Léna Soler

  • , LHPS, Archives H. Poincaré, Nancy, France

    Emiliano Trizio

  • , Department of Philosophy, University of Nevada-Reno, Reno, USA

    Thomas Nickles

  • , Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA

    William Wimsatt

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