Michael Riordan, Lillian Hoddeson, and Adrienne W. Kolb
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226294797
- eISBN:
- 9780226305837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226305837.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The idea for the Superconducting Super Collider emerged from high-energy physicists’ ambitions to build a next-generation particle accelerator to enable research on elementary particles at the ...
More
The idea for the Superconducting Super Collider emerged from high-energy physicists’ ambitions to build a next-generation particle accelerator to enable research on elementary particles at the trillion-electron-volt energy scale. After years of discussions about building such a machine internationally, with participating countries sharing the costs, US physicists put forth a new initiative based on advances in superconducting magnet technology achieved in building the Fermilab Tevatron. Responding to encouragement from Reagan science advisor George Keyworth and eager to regain US leadership in their field, they proposed building an enormous proton collider as a national project, open to participation by foreign scientists. In July 1983 a panel of high-energy physicists recommended that the Department of Energy cancel Brookhaven’s faltering Isabelle/CBA project and instead construct the SSC. Foreign reactions to this decision were largely negative; European physicists opted instead to continue pursuing their own multi-TeV collider, the Large Hadron Collider.Less
The idea for the Superconducting Super Collider emerged from high-energy physicists’ ambitions to build a next-generation particle accelerator to enable research on elementary particles at the trillion-electron-volt energy scale. After years of discussions about building such a machine internationally, with participating countries sharing the costs, US physicists put forth a new initiative based on advances in superconducting magnet technology achieved in building the Fermilab Tevatron. Responding to encouragement from Reagan science advisor George Keyworth and eager to regain US leadership in their field, they proposed building an enormous proton collider as a national project, open to participation by foreign scientists. In July 1983 a panel of high-energy physicists recommended that the Department of Energy cancel Brookhaven’s faltering Isabelle/CBA project and instead construct the SSC. Foreign reactions to this decision were largely negative; European physicists opted instead to continue pursuing their own multi-TeV collider, the Large Hadron Collider.
Anthony Leggett
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199211241
- eISBN:
- 9780191706837
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211241.001.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, Particle Physics / Astrophysics / Cosmology
Is the universe infinite, or does it have an edge beyond which there is, quite literally, nothing? Do we live in the only possible universe? Why does it have one time and three space dimensions — or ...
More
Is the universe infinite, or does it have an edge beyond which there is, quite literally, nothing? Do we live in the only possible universe? Why does it have one time and three space dimensions — or does it? What is it made of? What does it mean when we hear that a new particle has been discovered? Will quantum mechanics eventually break down and give way to a totally new description of the world, one whose features we cannot even begin to imagine? This book aims to give a general overview of what physicists think they do and do not know in some representative frontier areas of contemporary physics. After sketching out the historical background, the book goes on to discuss the current situation and some of the open problems of cosmology, high-energy physics, and condensed-matter physics. This book focuses not so much on recent achievements as on the fundamental problems at the heart of the subject, and emphasizes the provisional nature of our present understanding of things.Less
Is the universe infinite, or does it have an edge beyond which there is, quite literally, nothing? Do we live in the only possible universe? Why does it have one time and three space dimensions — or does it? What is it made of? What does it mean when we hear that a new particle has been discovered? Will quantum mechanics eventually break down and give way to a totally new description of the world, one whose features we cannot even begin to imagine? This book aims to give a general overview of what physicists think they do and do not know in some representative frontier areas of contemporary physics. After sketching out the historical background, the book goes on to discuss the current situation and some of the open problems of cosmology, high-energy physics, and condensed-matter physics. This book focuses not so much on recent achievements as on the fundamental problems at the heart of the subject, and emphasizes the provisional nature of our present understanding of things.
Helmuth Spieler
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198527848
- eISBN:
- 9780191713248
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198527848.001.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, Particle Physics / Astrophysics / Cosmology
Semiconductor sensors patterned at the micron scale combined with custom-designed integrated circuits have revolutionized semiconductor radiation detector systems. Designs covering many square meters ...
More
Semiconductor sensors patterned at the micron scale combined with custom-designed integrated circuits have revolutionized semiconductor radiation detector systems. Designs covering many square meters with millions of signal channels are now commonplace in high-energy physics and the technology is finding its way into many other fields, ranging from astrophysics to experiments at synchrotron light sources and medical imaging. This book presents a discussion of the many facets of highly integrated semiconductor detector systems, covering sensors, signal processing, transistors, circuits, low-noise electronics, and radiation effects. To lay a basis for the more detailed discussions in the book and aid in understanding how these different elements combine to form functional detector systems, the text includes introductions to semiconductor physics, diodes, detectors, signal formation, transistors, amplifier circuits, electronic noise mechanisms, and signal processing. A chapter on digital electronics includes key elements of analog-to-digital converters and an introduction to digital signal processing. The physics of radiation damage in semiconductor devices is discussed and applied to detectors and electronics. The diversity of design approaches is illustrated in a chapter describing systems in high-energy physics, astronomy, and astrophysics. Finally, a chapter ‘Why things don't work’, discusses common pitfalls, covering interference mechanisms such as power supply noise, microphonics, and shared current paths (‘ground loops’), together with mitigation techniques for pickup noise reduction, both at the circuit and system level. Beginning at a basic level, the book provides a unique introduction to a key area of modern science.Less
Semiconductor sensors patterned at the micron scale combined with custom-designed integrated circuits have revolutionized semiconductor radiation detector systems. Designs covering many square meters with millions of signal channels are now commonplace in high-energy physics and the technology is finding its way into many other fields, ranging from astrophysics to experiments at synchrotron light sources and medical imaging. This book presents a discussion of the many facets of highly integrated semiconductor detector systems, covering sensors, signal processing, transistors, circuits, low-noise electronics, and radiation effects. To lay a basis for the more detailed discussions in the book and aid in understanding how these different elements combine to form functional detector systems, the text includes introductions to semiconductor physics, diodes, detectors, signal formation, transistors, amplifier circuits, electronic noise mechanisms, and signal processing. A chapter on digital electronics includes key elements of analog-to-digital converters and an introduction to digital signal processing. The physics of radiation damage in semiconductor devices is discussed and applied to detectors and electronics. The diversity of design approaches is illustrated in a chapter describing systems in high-energy physics, astronomy, and astrophysics. Finally, a chapter ‘Why things don't work’, discusses common pitfalls, covering interference mechanisms such as power supply noise, microphonics, and shared current paths (‘ground loops’), together with mitigation techniques for pickup noise reduction, both at the circuit and system level. Beginning at a basic level, the book provides a unique introduction to a key area of modern science.
Michael Riordan, Lillian Hoddeson, and Adrienne W. Kolb
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226294797
- eISBN:
- 9780226305837
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226305837.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The October 1993 termination of the Superconducting Super Collider by Congress was a stunning blow for the US high-energy physics community — and a watershed event in the history of Big Science. ...
More
The October 1993 termination of the Superconducting Super Collider by Congress was a stunning blow for the US high-energy physics community — and a watershed event in the history of Big Science. Tunnel Visions follows the evolution of this multibillion-dollar basic scientific project from its origins in the Reagan Administration’s military buildup of the early 1980s to its post-Cold War demise a decade later. Obtaining support for this expensive project required physicists to make uncomfortable compromises and enter unfamiliar alliances with Department of Energy officials, Texas politicians and businessmen, and partners from the military-industrial complex. The billions of taxpayer dollars needed to build the SSC came with a level of public scrutiny few physicists had anticipated. The combination of this attention, ever-mounting SSC cost overruns, perceptions of mismanagement of the project by the physicists and DOE, and the lack of major foreign contributions were prominent factors in its termination. The book analyzes these and many other factors that contributed to the SSC’s demise, which occurred against the political backdrop of rapidly changing scientific needs as the United States transitioned from a Cold War footing in the early 1990s. Its death raises difficult questions about maintaining public support for such a large and expensive project during its lengthy construction period. Another important question is whether (and how) academic scientists and their government backers can manage such an enormous undertaking on their own. Comparisons with the successful European experience in building the Large Hadron Collider help to address these issues.Less
The October 1993 termination of the Superconducting Super Collider by Congress was a stunning blow for the US high-energy physics community — and a watershed event in the history of Big Science. Tunnel Visions follows the evolution of this multibillion-dollar basic scientific project from its origins in the Reagan Administration’s military buildup of the early 1980s to its post-Cold War demise a decade later. Obtaining support for this expensive project required physicists to make uncomfortable compromises and enter unfamiliar alliances with Department of Energy officials, Texas politicians and businessmen, and partners from the military-industrial complex. The billions of taxpayer dollars needed to build the SSC came with a level of public scrutiny few physicists had anticipated. The combination of this attention, ever-mounting SSC cost overruns, perceptions of mismanagement of the project by the physicists and DOE, and the lack of major foreign contributions were prominent factors in its termination. The book analyzes these and many other factors that contributed to the SSC’s demise, which occurred against the political backdrop of rapidly changing scientific needs as the United States transitioned from a Cold War footing in the early 1990s. Its death raises difficult questions about maintaining public support for such a large and expensive project during its lengthy construction period. Another important question is whether (and how) academic scientists and their government backers can manage such an enormous undertaking on their own. Comparisons with the successful European experience in building the Large Hadron Collider help to address these issues.
Peter Jenni, Markus Nordberg, and Max Boisot
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567928
- eISBN:
- 9780191728945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567928.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
ATLAS is a new high-energy physics (HEP) detector built by an international community of researchers and located at CERN just outside Geneva. ATLAS is big, global, and exciting. Together with three ...
More
ATLAS is a new high-energy physics (HEP) detector built by an international community of researchers and located at CERN just outside Geneva. ATLAS is big, global, and exciting. Together with three other detectors, it forms an integral part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a project that, because of the much higher particle-collision energies and production rates it achieves compared to existing accelerators, opens up challenging new frontiers in particle physics. This chapter presents background material on the ATLAS Collaboration that will help to clarify the chapters that follow. It briefly describes the ATLAS detector and the role it will play in the LHC experiments. It also offers a jargon-free outline of some of the physics that underpins the experiments and the technical challenges that had to be overcome. The history and the organization of the ATLAS Collaboration are also presented, as are its relationships with the host laboratory, CERN, and with the many firms and institutions that helped to build the detector.Less
ATLAS is a new high-energy physics (HEP) detector built by an international community of researchers and located at CERN just outside Geneva. ATLAS is big, global, and exciting. Together with three other detectors, it forms an integral part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a project that, because of the much higher particle-collision energies and production rates it achieves compared to existing accelerators, opens up challenging new frontiers in particle physics. This chapter presents background material on the ATLAS Collaboration that will help to clarify the chapters that follow. It briefly describes the ATLAS detector and the role it will play in the LHC experiments. It also offers a jargon-free outline of some of the physics that underpins the experiments and the technical challenges that had to be overcome. The history and the organization of the ATLAS Collaboration are also presented, as are its relationships with the host laboratory, CERN, and with the many firms and institutions that helped to build the detector.
Max Boisot and Markus Nordberg
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567928
- eISBN:
- 9780191728945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567928.003.0014
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
This chapter attempts to place ATLAS in its wider societal setting. Knowledge-for-its-own-sake may be what scientists aspire to maximize, yet knowledge-for-benefits is the constraint that they are ...
More
This chapter attempts to place ATLAS in its wider societal setting. Knowledge-for-its-own-sake may be what scientists aspire to maximize, yet knowledge-for-benefits is the constraint that they are required to work under if they are to continue to get funding. Given the rapid growth of investments in science, and the scale of individual projects such as the Large Hadron Collider, it is not enough to show that they satisfy the constraint. They now also have to show that they satisfy it better than competing alternatives. At the energies that the collider will generate, most physicists are expecting to see new particles appear, and these should give theorists enough to chew on for some years to come. But the non-physicist will ask, what are the options created by ATLAS and its associated experiments at the LHC actually worth? What new territory do they open up for the rest of us?Less
This chapter attempts to place ATLAS in its wider societal setting. Knowledge-for-its-own-sake may be what scientists aspire to maximize, yet knowledge-for-benefits is the constraint that they are required to work under if they are to continue to get funding. Given the rapid growth of investments in science, and the scale of individual projects such as the Large Hadron Collider, it is not enough to show that they satisfy the constraint. They now also have to show that they satisfy it better than competing alternatives. At the energies that the collider will generate, most physicists are expecting to see new particles appear, and these should give theorists enough to chew on for some years to come. But the non-physicist will ask, what are the options created by ATLAS and its associated experiments at the LHC actually worth? What new territory do they open up for the rest of us?
Lillian Hoddeson, Adrienne W. Kolb, and Catherine Westfall
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226346236
- eISBN:
- 9780226346250
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226346250.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located in the western suburbs of Chicago, has stood at the frontier of high-energy physics for forty years. This book is the first history of this laboratory ...
More
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located in the western suburbs of Chicago, has stood at the frontier of high-energy physics for forty years. This book is the first history of this laboratory and of its powerful accelerators told from the point of view of the people who built and used them for scientific discovery. Focusing on the first two decades of research at Fermilab, during the tenure of the laboratory's charismatic first two directors, Robert R. Wilson and Leon M. Lederman, the book traces the rise of what they call “megascience”, the collaborative struggle to conduct large-scale international experiments in a climate of limited federal funding. In the midst of this new climate, this book illuminates the growth of the modern research laboratory during the Cold War and captures the drama of human exploration at the cutting edge of science.Less
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located in the western suburbs of Chicago, has stood at the frontier of high-energy physics for forty years. This book is the first history of this laboratory and of its powerful accelerators told from the point of view of the people who built and used them for scientific discovery. Focusing on the first two decades of research at Fermilab, during the tenure of the laboratory's charismatic first two directors, Robert R. Wilson and Leon M. Lederman, the book traces the rise of what they call “megascience”, the collaborative struggle to conduct large-scale international experiments in a climate of limited federal funding. In the midst of this new climate, this book illuminates the growth of the modern research laboratory during the Cold War and captures the drama of human exploration at the cutting edge of science.
Max Boisot, Markus Nordberg, Saïd Yami, and Bertrand Nicquevert
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567928
- eISBN:
- 9780191728945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567928.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
With the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-energy physics (HEP) community appears to be putting all its eggs in one basket. The choice is framed by opponents as being between ...
More
With the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-energy physics (HEP) community appears to be putting all its eggs in one basket. The choice is framed by opponents as being between a single uncertain and risky Big Science project and several smaller, less risky, and more immediately useful ones. Many physicists assume that their discipline is in some sense foundational and generative of other kinds of knowledge. In the philosophy of science, this assumption has a name: reductionism. It is by no means universally shared. The stakes are high and getting higher as the scale of physics experiments increases and the competition for scarce research resources intensifies. There is a need for a more nuanced understanding of what the pay-offs of this kind of research might be and for whom. This book offers different perspectives on how these issues play out; not at the broad level of HEP, but at the more concrete level of one of the four major experiments that will use the LHC: the ATLAS Collaboration. A number of management scholars as well as participants in the ATLAS Collaboration came together to explore the different organizational, institutional, and cultural issues confronting an experiment like ATLAS. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
With the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-energy physics (HEP) community appears to be putting all its eggs in one basket. The choice is framed by opponents as being between a single uncertain and risky Big Science project and several smaller, less risky, and more immediately useful ones. Many physicists assume that their discipline is in some sense foundational and generative of other kinds of knowledge. In the philosophy of science, this assumption has a name: reductionism. It is by no means universally shared. The stakes are high and getting higher as the scale of physics experiments increases and the competition for scarce research resources intensifies. There is a need for a more nuanced understanding of what the pay-offs of this kind of research might be and for whom. This book offers different perspectives on how these issues play out; not at the broad level of HEP, but at the more concrete level of one of the four major experiments that will use the LHC: the ATLAS Collaboration. A number of management scholars as well as participants in the ATLAS Collaboration came together to explore the different organizational, institutional, and cultural issues confronting an experiment like ATLAS. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Philipp Tuertscher, Raghu Garud, Markus Nordberg, and Max Boisot
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567928
- eISBN:
- 9780191728945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567928.003.0005
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
The collective effort required to develop, build, and run the ATLAS detector has been structured as a ‘collaboration’, a distributed problem-solving network characteristic of Big Science, itself a ...
More
The collective effort required to develop, build, and run the ATLAS detector has been structured as a ‘collaboration’, a distributed problem-solving network characteristic of Big Science, itself a relatively recent kind of enterprise involving big budgets, big staffs, big machines, and numerous laboratories. While ATLAS is an archetypical example of this type of enterprise in high-energy physics (HEP), similar endeavours can be found in basic physics, astronomy, and the life sciences. This chapter presents research that investigates the development and construction of the complex technological system that makes up the ATLAS detector.Less
The collective effort required to develop, build, and run the ATLAS detector has been structured as a ‘collaboration’, a distributed problem-solving network characteristic of Big Science, itself a relatively recent kind of enterprise involving big budgets, big staffs, big machines, and numerous laboratories. While ATLAS is an archetypical example of this type of enterprise in high-energy physics (HEP), similar endeavours can be found in basic physics, astronomy, and the life sciences. This chapter presents research that investigates the development and construction of the complex technological system that makes up the ATLAS detector.
Eric Winsberg
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226902029
- eISBN:
- 9780226902050
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226902050.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Computer simulation was first pioneered as a scientific tool in meteorology and nuclear physics in the period following World War II, but it has grown rapidly to become indispensible in a wide ...
More
Computer simulation was first pioneered as a scientific tool in meteorology and nuclear physics in the period following World War II, but it has grown rapidly to become indispensible in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including astrophysics, high-energy physics, climate science, engineering, ecology, and economics. Digital computer simulation helps study phenomena of great complexity, but how much do we know about the limits and possibilities of this new scientific practice? How do simulations compare to traditional experiments? And are they reliable? This book seeks to answer these questions. Scrutinizing these issues with a philosophical lens, it explores the impact of simulation on such issues as the nature of scientific evidence; the role of values in science; the nature and role of fictions in science; and the relationship between simulation and experiment, theories and data, and theories at different levels of description.Less
Computer simulation was first pioneered as a scientific tool in meteorology and nuclear physics in the period following World War II, but it has grown rapidly to become indispensible in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including astrophysics, high-energy physics, climate science, engineering, ecology, and economics. Digital computer simulation helps study phenomena of great complexity, but how much do we know about the limits and possibilities of this new scientific practice? How do simulations compare to traditional experiments? And are they reliable? This book seeks to answer these questions. Scrutinizing these issues with a philosophical lens, it explores the impact of simulation on such issues as the nature of scientific evidence; the role of values in science; the nature and role of fictions in science; and the relationship between simulation and experiment, theories and data, and theories at different levels of description.
Kent W. Staley
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190467715
- eISBN:
- 9780190467753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190467715.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Much of the discussion of the argument from inductive risk (AIR) centers on scientific research that has relevance to policymaking. To emphasize that inductive risk pervades science, this chapter ...
More
Much of the discussion of the argument from inductive risk (AIR) centers on scientific research that has relevance to policymaking. To emphasize that inductive risk pervades science, this chapter discusses the AIR in the context of high energy physics: specifically, the discovery of the Higgs boson, a scientific finding that is irrelevant to policy. The applicability of the AIR for the case of the Higgs boson is established through a pragmatic approach to scientific inquiry, emphasizing the centrality of practical decision problems to the production of scientific knowledge. This approach, drawing on debates among pragmatists over the interpretation of statistical inference, eschews the classification of value judgments into epistemic and non-epistemic.Less
Much of the discussion of the argument from inductive risk (AIR) centers on scientific research that has relevance to policymaking. To emphasize that inductive risk pervades science, this chapter discusses the AIR in the context of high energy physics: specifically, the discovery of the Higgs boson, a scientific finding that is irrelevant to policy. The applicability of the AIR for the case of the Higgs boson is established through a pragmatic approach to scientific inquiry, emphasizing the centrality of practical decision problems to the production of scientific knowledge. This approach, drawing on debates among pragmatists over the interpretation of statistical inference, eschews the classification of value judgments into epistemic and non-epistemic.
William Rehg
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262182713
- eISBN:
- 9780262255318
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262182713.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter analyzes a case of argument construction in high-energy physics—the writing of a scientific paper announcing the evidence for the existence of the top quark by the Collider Detector at ...
More
This chapter analyzes a case of argument construction in high-energy physics—the writing of a scientific paper announcing the evidence for the existence of the top quark by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). In writing the 1994 papers at Fermilab, the CDF scientists “sought consensus on both the conclusions and supporting evidence.” This CDF case explains the different aims of critical assessment as it further clarifies and examines the potential of Habermas’s model for highlighting actual processes of scientific argumentation. It further shows how the use of Habermas’s argumentation theory can be helpful in creating interdisciplinary cooperation in the service of critical assessment of actual cases. The chapter concludes that Habermas’s model generated certain reform proposals in science as well as in science journalism .Less
This chapter analyzes a case of argument construction in high-energy physics—the writing of a scientific paper announcing the evidence for the existence of the top quark by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). In writing the 1994 papers at Fermilab, the CDF scientists “sought consensus on both the conclusions and supporting evidence.” This CDF case explains the different aims of critical assessment as it further clarifies and examines the potential of Habermas’s model for highlighting actual processes of scientific argumentation. It further shows how the use of Habermas’s argumentation theory can be helpful in creating interdisciplinary cooperation in the service of critical assessment of actual cases. The chapter concludes that Habermas’s model generated certain reform proposals in science as well as in science journalism .
William Rehg
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262182713
- eISBN:
- 9780262255318
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262182713.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Recent years have seen a series of intense, increasingly acrimonious debates over the status and legitimacy of the natural sciences. These “science wars” take place in the public arena—with current ...
More
Recent years have seen a series of intense, increasingly acrimonious debates over the status and legitimacy of the natural sciences. These “science wars” take place in the public arena—with current battles over evolution, and global warming—and in academia, where assumptions about scientific objectivity have been called into question. Given these hostilities, what makes a scientific claim merit our consideration? This book examines what makes scientific arguments cogent—that is, strong, convincing, and “logically compelling”—and how we should assess that cogency. Drawing on the tools of argumentation theory, the author proposes a multidimensional, context-sensitive framework both for understanding and for conducting cooperative interdisciplinary evaluation of the cogency of actual scientific arguments. He closely examines Jürgen Habermas’s argumentation theory and its implications for understanding cogency, applying it to a case from high-energy physics. A series of problems, however, beset Habermas’s approach. In response, the author outlines his own “critical contextualist” approach, which uses argumentation-theory categories in a new and more context-sensitive way that is inspired by the ethnography of science.Less
Recent years have seen a series of intense, increasingly acrimonious debates over the status and legitimacy of the natural sciences. These “science wars” take place in the public arena—with current battles over evolution, and global warming—and in academia, where assumptions about scientific objectivity have been called into question. Given these hostilities, what makes a scientific claim merit our consideration? This book examines what makes scientific arguments cogent—that is, strong, convincing, and “logically compelling”—and how we should assess that cogency. Drawing on the tools of argumentation theory, the author proposes a multidimensional, context-sensitive framework both for understanding and for conducting cooperative interdisciplinary evaluation of the cogency of actual scientific arguments. He closely examines Jürgen Habermas’s argumentation theory and its implications for understanding cogency, applying it to a case from high-energy physics. A series of problems, however, beset Habermas’s approach. In response, the author outlines his own “critical contextualist” approach, which uses argumentation-theory categories in a new and more context-sensitive way that is inspired by the ethnography of science.
Kevin C. Elliott and Ted Richards (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190467715
- eISBN:
- 9780190467753
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190467715.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
According to the argument from inductive risk, scientists have responsibilities to consider the consequences of error when they set evidential standards for making decisions such as accepting or ...
More
According to the argument from inductive risk, scientists have responsibilities to consider the consequences of error when they set evidential standards for making decisions such as accepting or rejecting hypotheses. This argument has received a great deal of scholarly attention in recent years. Exploring Inductive Risk brings together a set of concrete case studies with the goals of illustrating the pervasiveness of inductive risk, assisting scientists and policymakers in responding to it, and moving theoretical discussions of this phenomenon forward. The book contains eleven case studies ranging over a wide range of scientific contexts and fields: the drug approval process, high energy particle physics, dual-use research, climate science, research on gender disparities, clinical trials, and toxicology. The chapters are divided into four parts: (1) weighing inductive risk; (2) evading inductive risk; (3) the breadth of inductive risk; and (4) exploring the limits of inductive risk. It includes an introduction that provides a historical overview of the argument from inductive risk and a conclusion that highlights three major topic areas that merit future research. These include the nature of inductive risk and the argument from inductive risk (AIR), the extent to which the AIR can be evaded by defenders of the value-free ideal, and the strategies that the scientific community can employ to handle inductive risk in a responsible fashion.Less
According to the argument from inductive risk, scientists have responsibilities to consider the consequences of error when they set evidential standards for making decisions such as accepting or rejecting hypotheses. This argument has received a great deal of scholarly attention in recent years. Exploring Inductive Risk brings together a set of concrete case studies with the goals of illustrating the pervasiveness of inductive risk, assisting scientists and policymakers in responding to it, and moving theoretical discussions of this phenomenon forward. The book contains eleven case studies ranging over a wide range of scientific contexts and fields: the drug approval process, high energy particle physics, dual-use research, climate science, research on gender disparities, clinical trials, and toxicology. The chapters are divided into four parts: (1) weighing inductive risk; (2) evading inductive risk; (3) the breadth of inductive risk; and (4) exploring the limits of inductive risk. It includes an introduction that provides a historical overview of the argument from inductive risk and a conclusion that highlights three major topic areas that merit future research. These include the nature of inductive risk and the argument from inductive risk (AIR), the extent to which the AIR can be evaded by defenders of the value-free ideal, and the strategies that the scientific community can employ to handle inductive risk in a responsible fashion.
