Characterizing the Robustness of Science: After the Practice Turn in Philosophy of Science (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science Book 292)

Mature sciences have been long been characterized in terms of the "successfulness", "reliability" or "trustworthiness" of their theoretical, experimental or technical accomplishments. Today many philosophers of science talk of "robustness", often without specifying in a precise way the meaning of this term. This lack of clarity is the cause of frequent misunderstandings, since all these notions, and that of robustness in particular, are connected to fundamental issues, which concern nothing less than the very nature of science and its specificity with respect to other human practices, the nature of rationality and of scientific progress; and science's claim to be a truth-conducive activity. This book offers for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the problem of robustness, and in general, that of the reliability of science, based on several detailed case studies and on philosophical essays inspired by the so-called practical turn in philosophy of science. Thanks to its rich thematic variety, the book is addressed to the entire science studies community: general philosophers of science, philosophers of physics, biology, cognitive sciences, historians, sociologists and anthropologists of science. As the authors carefully explain all the examples discussed in the book, only a general background of scientific knowledge is presupposed Introduction: The Solidity Of Scientific Achievements: Structure Of The Problem, Difficulties, Philosophical Implications / Léna Soler -- Robustness, Reliability, And Overdetermination (1981) / William C. Wimsatt -- Robustness: Material, And Inferential, In The Natural And Human Sciences / William C. Wimsatt -- Achieving Robustness To Confirm Controversial Hypotheses: A Case Study In Cell Biology / Emiliano Trizio -- Multiple Derivability And The Reliability And Stabilization Of Theories / Hubertus Nederbragt -- Robustness Of An Experimental Result: The Example Of The Tests Of Bell's Inequalities / Catherine Dufourt And Léna Soler -- Scientific Images And Robustness / Catherine Allamel-raffin And Jean-luc Gangloff -- Are We Still Babylonians? The Structure Of The Foundations Of Mathematics From A Wimsattian Perspective / Ralf Krömer -- Rerum Concordia Discors: Robustness And Discordant Multimodal Evidence / Jacob Stegenga -- Robustness Of Results And Robustness Of Derivations: The Internal Architecture Of A Solid Experimental Proof / Léna Soler -- Multiple Means Of Determination And Multiple Constraints Of Construction: Robustness And Strategies For Modeling Macromolecular Objects / Frédéric Wieber -- Understanding Scientific Practices: The Role Of Robustness Notions / Mieke Boon -- The Robustness Of Science And The Dance Of Agency / Andrew Pickering -- Dynamic Robustness And Design In Nature And Artifact / Thomas Nickles. Edited By Léna Soler ... [et Al.]. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: The Solidity of Scientific Achievements: Structure of the Problem, Difficulties, Philosophical Implications....Pages 1-60 Robustness, Reliability, and Overdetermination (1981)....Pages 61-87 Robustness: Material, and Inferential, in the Natural and Human Sciences....Pages 89-104 Achieving Robustness to Confirm Controversial Hypotheses: A Case Study in Cell Biology....Pages 105-120 Multiple Derivability and the Reliability and Stabilization of Theories....Pages 121-145 Robustness of an Experimental Result: The Example of the Tests of Bell’s Inequalities....Pages 147-167 Scientific Images and Robustness....Pages 169-188 Are We Still Babylonians? The Structure of the Foundations of Mathematics from a Wimsattian Perspective....Pages 189-206 Rerum Concordia Discors : Robustness and Discordant Multimodal Evidence....Pages 207-226 Robustness of Results and Robustness of Derivations: The Internal Architecture of a Solid Experimental Proof....Pages 227-266 Multiple Means of Determination and Multiple Constraints of Construction: Robustness and Strategies for Modeling Macromolecular Objects....Pages 267-288 Understanding Scientific Practices: The Role of Robustness Notions....Pages 289-315 The Robustness of Science and the Dance of Agency....Pages 317-327 Dynamic Robustness and Design in Nature and Artifact....Pages 329-360 Back Matter....Pages 361-372 Annotation Featuring contributions from the world's leading experts on the subject and based partly on several detailed case studies, this volume is a comprehensive analysis of the scientific notion of robustness as well as of the general reliability of science