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Error as Means to Discovery*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Kevin Elliott
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Abstract

This paper argues, first, that recent studies of experimentation, most notably by Deborah Mayo, provide the conceptual resources to describe scientific discovery's early stages as error-probing processes. Second, it shows that this description yields greater understanding of those early stages, including the challenges that they pose, the research strategies associated with them, and their influence on the rest of the discovery process. Throughout, the paper examines the phenomenon of “chemical hormesis” (i.e., anomalous low-dose effects from toxic chemicals) as a case study that is important not only for the biological sciences but also for contemporary public policy. The resulting analysis is significant for at least two reasons. First, by elucidating the importance of discovery's earliest stages, it expands previous accounts by philosophers such as William Wimsatt and Lindley Darden. Second, it identifies the discovery process as yet another philosophical topic on which the detailed studies of the “new experimentalists” can shed new light.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 2 , April 2004 , pp. 174 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Kelly Smith, Douglas Allchin, and two anonymous referees for helpful discussions and comments that strengthened this paper. I also thank Douglas Allchin and Lindley Darden for encouraging me to develop the paper.

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