Profound Experiments

Murphy, Alice (2023): Profound Experiments. In: The Aesthetics of Scientific Experiments. Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science Series, 1. New York ; London: Routledge.

Abstract

Philosophers of science have typically focused on “beauty”, “simplicity”, and “elegance” in their accounts of aesthetic values in science. But this is too narrow: other properties ought to be considered when thinking about aesthetics in science. In this chapter, Alice Murphy expands the discussion by asking: What makes a scientific experiment “profound”? To address this question, she draws on two accounts of profundity as developed in the philosophy of art to consider them in the scientific context. On the first view, profound experiments are those which, due to their design, bring about understanding of some profound subject matter. On the second view, profound experiments are those which resist a straightforward interpretation, and can even prompt the development of new theories and concepts. To flesh out these two aspects of profundity, Murphy brings together theories from philosophy of art and topics in the epistemology of experiment. The chapter ends by demonstrating how broadening our class of aesthetic values to include profundity puts pressure on the scope of a central view brings together the epistemic and aesthetic by associating aesthetic experiences with “feelings of fluency”.

• Dokumententyp: Buchbeitrag
• Fakultät: Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP)
• Themengebiete: 100 Philosophie und Psychologie > 120 Epistemologie
• ISBN: 978-1-032-20507-6; 978-1-003-26392-0; 978-1-032-20388-1
• Ort: New York ; London
• Sprache: Englisch