Evans, Peter W. and Thebault, Karim P Y (2020) On the Limits of Experimental Knowledge. [Preprint]
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Abstract
To demarcate the limits of experimental knowledge we probe the limits of what might be called an experiment. By appeal to examples of scientific practice from astrophysics and analogue gravity, we demonstrate that the reliability of knowledge regarding certain phenomena gained from an experiment is not circumscribed by the manipulability or accessibility of the target phenomena. Rather, the limits of experimental knowledge are set by the extent to which strategies for what we call `inductive triangulation' are available: that is, the validation of the mode of inductive reasoning involved in the source-target inference via appeal to one or more distinct and independent modes of inductive reasoning. When such strategies are able to partially mitigate reasonable doubt, we can take a theory regarding the phenomena to be well supported by experiment. When such strategies are able to fully mitigate reasonable doubt, we can take a theory regarding the phenomena to be established by experiment. There are good reasons to expect the next generation of analogue experiments to provide genuine knowledge of unmanipulable and inaccessible phenomena such that the relevant theories can be understood as well supported.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
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| Additional Information: | Forthcoming in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, The Next Generation of Analogue Gravity Experiments, edited by Maxime Jacquet, Silke Weinfurtner and Friedrich König. | |||||||||
| Keywords: | analogue experiments, experimental knowledge, confirmation | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Astrophysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Experimentation |
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| Depositing User: | Dr Karim Thebault | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 05 Jun 2020 00:40 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 05 Jun 2020 00:40 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 17282 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Astrophysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Experimentation |
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| Date: | 4 June 2020 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17282 |
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On the Limits of Experimental Knowledge. (deposited 31 Oct 2019 05:47)
- On the Limits of Experimental Knowledge. (deposited 05 Jun 2020 00:40) [Currently Displayed]
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