On the limits of experimental knowledge
On the limits of experimental knowledge
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DOI：
10.1098/rsta.2019.0235
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发表时间：
2019-10
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
P. Evans;Karim P. Y. Th'ebault
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
P. Evans;Karim P. Y. Th'ebault
为了划定实验知识的界限，我们探索了所谓实验的界限。通过呼吁从天体物理学和模拟重力的科学实践的例子，我们证明，从实验中获得的某些现象的知识的可靠性是不受限制的目标现象的可操作性或可访问性。相反，实验知识的局限性是由我们所谓的“归纳三角”策略的可用程度所决定的：也就是说，通过呼吁一个或多个不同的和独立的归纳推理模式来验证源目标推理中涉及的归纳推理模式。当这种策略能够部分地减轻合理怀疑时，我们可以采取一种由实验很好地支持的关于现象的理论。当这种策略能够完全消除合理怀疑时，我们就可以通过实验建立一个关于现象的理论。我们有充分的理由期待下一代的模拟实验能够提供关于不可操纵和不可接近现象的真正知识，从而使相关理论能够得到很好的支持和理解。这篇文章是讨论会议议题“下一代模拟重力实验”的一部分。
To demarcate the limits of experimental knowledge, we probe the limits of what might be called an experiment. By appeal to examples of scientific practice from astrophysics and analogue gravity, we demonstrate that the reliability of knowledge regarding certain phenomena gained from an experiment is not circumscribed by the manipulability or accessibility of the target phenomena. Rather, the limits of experimental knowledge are set by the extent to which strategies for what we call ‘inductive triangulation’ are available: that is, the validation of the mode of inductive reasoning involved in the source-target inference via appeal to one or more distinct and independent modes of inductive reasoning. When such strategies are able to partially mitigate reasonable doubt, we can take a theory regarding the phenomena to be well supported by experiment. When such strategies are able to fully mitigate reasonable doubt, we can take a theory regarding the phenomena to be established by experiment. There are good reasons to expect the next generation of analogue experiments to provide genuine knowledge of unmanipulable and inaccessible phenomena such that the relevant theories can be understood as well supported. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The next generation of analogue gravity experiments’.