[spsp-members] Call for Papers - Topical Collection - The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments Across the Sciences

[Enno Fischer]

*Call for Papers: “The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments Across the 
Sciences”*

Topical Collection in the /European Journal for Philosophy of Science/**

Guest Editors: Enno Fischer (Institute of Philosophy, TU Dresden) & 
Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda (Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, 
KU Leuven)**

Open for submissions:*1 November 2024 – 30 April 2025*

Originally going back to Larry Laudan’s (1977) distinction between the 
‘context of acceptance’and the ‘context of pursuit,’ the concept of 
/pursuitworthiness/ has garnered considerable attention in the 
philosophy of science in recent years. For instance, philosophers have 
explored the different stances on pursuitworthiness adopted by towering 
figures in the field such as Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend (e.g., 
Šešelja & Straßer, 2013; Shaw, 2022), and have advanced and debated 
manifold epistemic criteria on what makes a scientific idea or proposal 
worthy of being undertaken (e.g., Achinstein, 1993; Šešelja et al., 
2012; Šešelja & Straßer, 2014; Shan, 2020; DiMarco & Khalifa, 2019, 
Fleisher, 2022). The significance of this enlarging body of scholarship 
notwithstanding, philosophical reflections on the pursuitworthiness of 
scientific research have almost exclusively focused on theories, (and to 
a lesser extent on) models and research programmes /in toto /(e.g., 
Lichtenstein, 2021; Cabrera, 2021; Haueis & Kästner, 2022; Han, 2023; 
Fischer, 2024a; Wolf & Duerr, 2024), whereas systematic and 
comprehensive reflection on the /pursuitworthiness of experiments/ is 
hitherto lacking (but see Laymon & Franklin, 2022; DiMarco & Khalifa, 
2022; Fischer, 2024b). This is an important and somewhat surprising 
lacuna because it is often the experiments, out of the many elements 
that make up scientific practice, that require large amounts of funding, 
deliberations, and long-term planning.

For the philosophy of science, delving into the pursuitworthiness of 
experiments is also particularly pressing given that since the years of 
Laudan’s initial proposal, the philosophy of experiment has 
re-established itself as a central element in the canon of the 
discipline (see, e.g., Hacking, 1983, 1988; Gooding et al., 1989; 
Steinle, 2002; Radder, 2003; Weber, 2009; Feest & Steinle, 2016; 
Bokulich & Bocchi, 2024). Philosophers of experiment have foregrounded 
many important considerations (e.g., material cultures of 
experimentation and the role of instruments, the importance of tacit 
knowledge in experimental manipulations, and how experiments affect 
concept, model and theory formation), but they have not inquired in 
detail about the context of pursuit of experiments in different 
scientific settings. In this sense, the topic of the pursuitworthiness 
of experiments lies at the interface between two salient, overarching 
problem spaces in the philosophy of science.

The aim of this topical collection is to put discussions of the 
pursuitworthiness of experiments on the agenda of general philosophy of 
science and the philosophies of the special sciences. It will bring 
together contributions addressing experiments across the sciences, from 
the physical and chemical sciences to the life, biomedical, and 
cognitive sciences, as well as the social sciences. For more details on 
possible topics and questions, references and instructions for 
submission see the full call for papers:

https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/iphil/phisci/ressourcen/dateien/CfP_EJPS.pdf

-- 
Enno Fischer
Juniorprofessur für Wissenschaftstheorie
Technische Universität Dresden
Zellescher Weg 17
01069 Dresden

E-Mail: enno.fischer at tu-dresden.de
Website <https://ennofischer.weebly.com>|Bluesky 
<https://bsky.app/profile/ennofischer.bsky.social>
New article: The Promise of Supersymmetry 
<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-023-04447-1>
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