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The Qualitative Study of Scientific Imagination

Stuart, Michael T. (2024) The Qualitative Study of Scientific Imagination. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Imagination is extremely important for science, yet very little is known about how scientists actually use it. Are scientists taught to imagine? What do they value imagination for? How do social and disciplinary factors shape it? How is the labor of imagining distributed? These questions should be high priority for anyone who studies or practices science, and this paper argues that the best methods for addressing them are qualitative. I summarize a few preliminary findings derived from recent interview-based and observational qualitative studies that I have performed. These finding include: (i) imagination is only valued for use in addressing maximally specific problems, and only when all else fails; (ii) younger scientists and scientists who are members of underrepresented groups express less positive views about imagination in general, and have less confidence in their own imaginations; (iii) while scientists seem to employ various epistemological frameworks to evaluate imaginings, overall they appear to be epistemic consequentialists about imagination, and this holds also for their evaluations of the tools they use to extend the power of their imaginations. I close by discussing the epistemic and ethical consequences of these findings, and then suggesting a few research avenues that could be explored next as we move forward in the study of scientific imagination.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Stuart, Michael T.mike.stuart.post@gmail.com0000-0002-4165-2641
Additional Information: Forthcoming in Qualitative Psychology
Keywords: scientific imagination; imagination; qualitative methods; empirical philosophy of science; internalism; externalism; consequentialism; virtue epistemology; deontology; ethics of science
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Earth Sciences
General Issues > Ethical Issues
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Mathematics
General Issues > Models and Idealization
Specific Sciences > Physics
General Issues > Science Education
General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
Specific Sciences > Sociology
General Issues > Thought Experiments
Depositing User: Michael T. Stuart
Date Deposited: 05 Apr 2024 06:43
Last Modified: 05 Apr 2024 06:43
Item ID: 23254
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Earth Sciences
General Issues > Ethical Issues
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Mathematics
General Issues > Models and Idealization
Specific Sciences > Physics
General Issues > Science Education
General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
Specific Sciences > Sociology
General Issues > Thought Experiments
Date: 2024
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23254

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