Bollhagen, Andrew (2025) Creativity and Practical Underdetermination: How Experimental Science Steps into the Epistemic Adjacent Possible. [Preprint]
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Abstract
This paper offers a novel take on what philosophers have called problems of "practical
underdetermination" in order to identify a form of creativity epistemic agency operative
in the means by which researchers cope with such problems. In developing my
analysis, I contrast my "experimental dead-space" (EDS) formulation of practical
underdetermination with the more standard "epistemic gap" formulation. I embed
the idea of an EDS within a broader unit of analysis--a "research program"--and identify
an experimental dead-space with what I call, borrowing terms from Stuart Kauffman, an
"epistemic adjacent possible." This enables me to characterize the form of creativity I
have in mind. Finally, I revisit the case study for which the idea of an experimental
dead-space was originally formulated in order to show how my expanded analysis
enables us to appreciate how research platforms in experimental science can
creatively develop in genuinely novel, "unprestatable" ways.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | underdetermination; creativity; philosophy of science in practice; cell biology; molecular motors; mechanistic philosophy of science | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science General Issues > Theory/Observation General Issues > Values In Science |
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| Depositing User: | Mr. Andrew Bollhagen | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 30 Jul 2025 13:01 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 30 Jul 2025 13:01 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 26056 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science General Issues > Theory/Observation General Issues > Values In Science |
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| Date: | 2025 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/26056 |
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