This discussion group will meet in conjunction with PHIL 8670: Seminar: Philosophy of Science from 4:00PM - 6:30PM on Tuesdays in 731 Heller Hall.
For more information contact Samuel Fletcher
This discussion group will focus on reproducibility and replication in science. Drawing from sources in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, we will investigate questions such as: Why, or under what circumstances, is the replication of an experiment or the reproducibility of its result important in science? What scientific role do these concepts play? How are they defined? We will explore these sorts of questions (i) through Collins’s challenge to the justification of experimental replication, called the experimenters’ regress, in his monograph, Changing Order; and (ii) through reactions to it, and attempts to define replication and characterize its role in science. Textbook: H. M. Collins, Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice, University of Chicago Press, 1992 ed.