Beauchemin, Pierre-Hugues and Staley, Kent (2023) The epistemological significance of exploratory experimentation: Why practices matter, philosophically. [Preprint]
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Abstract
We employ a pragmatic model of inquiry to distinguish the epistemological character of exploratory experimentation. Exploratory experimentation is not constituted by any intrinsic characteristics of an episode of experimentation but depends on the context and aims of the experiment and the ways in which these shape decisions about how the experimental inquiry is to be conducted: its tasks, resources, and aims, as well as the critical assessment of all of these. To demonstrate the usefulness of our approach, we apply it to the contrast between two kinds of searches for new physics at the Large Hadron Collider. Some searches are exploratory while others target specific Beyond Standard Model hypotheses, but this contrast can be understood only by considering the relations between these searches, their aims, and the way that these aims shape their respective experimental parameters and procedures. Our approach provides a model for establishing the epistemological significance of details of experimental practice.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
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| Keywords: | Exploratory experimentation; pragmatism; practices; inquiry; experimental physics | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles |
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| Depositing User: | Kent Staley | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 22 Sep 2023 22:45 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 22 Sep 2023 22:45 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 22567 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles |
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| Date: | 8 June 2023 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/22567 |
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