PhilSci Archive

Reconsidering Explanation: Lessons from Nanosynthesis

Bursten, Julia R. (2012) Reconsidering Explanation: Lessons from Nanosynthesis. In: UNSPECIFIED.

[img]
Preview
PDF
PSANanoArchive.pdf - Presentation

Download (68kB)

Abstract

Nanosynthesis forces a reevaluation of received views on scientific explanation. I discuss the synthesis of anisotropic metal nanoparticles, a typical nanosynthesis research program, in order to demonstrate the failure of standard philosophical accounts of explanation to capture the dynamics of information exchange in synthetic sciences. I argue that using the language of effective heuristics, coupled with attention to changes in the meanings of concepts across different length scales, is a more promising means of capturing how information is obtained from the study of nanosynthesis systems.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Bursten, Julia R.jrb135@pitt.edu
Additional Information: This text is the script of the talk presented at the 2012 PSA meeting. As such, it contains no formal bibliography and occasionally refers to figures or slides. References and slides are available upon request.
Keywords: chemistry, nano, explanation, synthesis, scales
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Chemistry
General Issues > Explanation
Depositing User: Julia Bursten
Date Deposited: 11 Jan 2013 17:19
Last Modified: 11 Jan 2013 17:19
Item ID: 9518
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Chemistry
General Issues > Explanation
Date: 15 November 2012
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9518

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item