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Open research questions in Philosophy and History of Science

64 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 4,589 Philosophy and History of Science papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • In the study of complex phenomena, there is an extreme trade-off between generality and precision in which basic theories do not make the precise predictions needed for the development of applications and in which applied models are lacking in generality.

    Redefining Science: The Impact of Complexity on Theory Development in Social and Behavioral Research · 2019 · DOI

  • If we recall that human endeavors, although occurring in a largely autonomous social and linguistic world, are nevertheless limited by the constraints that natural reality forces upon us, we begin to understand that the social-linguistic world itself is not a boat freely floating without directions.

    Pragmatic Objectivity · 2014 · DOI

  • The present paper challenges this position by identifying three avenues through which nonepistemic values associated with discovery and pursuit in contemporary pollution research influence theory appraisal: (1) by guiding the choice of questions and research projects, (2) by altering experimental design, and (3) by affecting the creation and further investigation of theories or hypotheses.

    How Values in Scientific Discovery and Pursuit Alter Theory Appraisal · 2009 · DOI

  • But this elevation of objectivity to the status of a scientific virtue began to crystallise earlier, during the Enlightenment, when scientists increasingly and systematically focused on the truth of their discoveries and experiments, separating these off from the realm of religion, and seeking methods that could be replicated and evaluated by their peers.

    Objectivity by Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison · 2009 · DOI

  • The aim is to show that the hope of superseding reductionism by means of concepts such as that of “emergence” is fallacious and that the science of complexity proposes forms of reductionism that are even more restrictive than the classical ones, particularly when it claims to unify in a single treatment problems that vary widely in nature such as physical, biological, and social problems.

    The Science of Complexity: Epistemological Problems and Perspectives · 2005 · DOI

  • In order to answer a series of questions about what is being modeled and what claims about the models are warranted, a descriptive epistemological method is employed that uses historical techniques to develop detailed accounts which, in turn, help to reveal forms of reasoning that are explicit, or more often implicit, in the practice of a particular field of scientific study.

    Model Organisms as Models: Understanding the ‘Lingua Franca’ of the Human Genome Project · 2001 · DOI

  • I strongly agree with what I take to be Arnhart's basic claims: that Aristotle's teleological biology is plausible in the light of what we now think about good scientific practice, and that it provides a kind of basis or vocabulary for moral and practical deliberation that is lacking in nonteleological or reductionist biology.

    Final Causes and Instant Cases: A Comment · 1988 · DOI

  • In particular, we needs to examine disciplines with characteristics opposite to those of radio astronomy-that is, disciplines which are socially and intellectually well established, where new lines of investigation are scarce, where research is undertaken by small groups or by separate individuals, and where research equipment is comparatively cheap and versatile. Thus further research into rates of scientific mobility must take account of those factors which influence the availability of intellectual and social support.

    Conceptual Displacement and Migration in Science: A Prefatory Paper · 1974 · DOI

  • (Inhelder & have the connotation Piaget, 1958) showed capable of at- tempting In concrete operational what was lacking as compared aimed at elucidating situations indicate children physical contact generalized claim (op.

    If you want to get ahead, get a theory · 1974 · DOI

  • 2 The assumption that the 'local' organization is not relevant to the normative structure of science was earlier challenged by Krohn3 and West4: Krohn noted that scientific work now occurs in a variety of institutional settings, amongst which normative structures vary widely, and West demonstrated that some academics do not hold values or beliefs commensurate with the posited norms of science5.

    Questioning the Influence of a 'Social System of Science': a Study of Australian Scientists · 1974 · DOI

  • Only in one of these ways can we hope to retrieve a realm in which experience is again stable once and for all-in which the pendulum and the constrained fall are not different perceptions but rather different interpretations of the unequivocal data provided by observation of a swinging stone.

    On the production and structuring of scientific knowledges · 1973 · DOI

  • &dquo; We are not implying that current issues have falsely skewed these writings but underlining that the issues involved are not limited to a particular time and place. com at CARLETON UNIV on June 13, 2015 346 he is inclined in his best known article on sal ammoniac to assign most credit to little known practical men.

    Theorists and Ingenious Mechanics: Joseph Henry Defines Science · 1973 · DOI

  • In 1868 Lockyer and Janssen, working independently, discovered a spectroscopic method whereby the solar prominences could be studied in daylight, whereas previously they were observable only during a total eclipse.

    Science and Controversy: A Biography of Sir Norman Lockyer · 1973 · DOI

  • made by the Council for Scientific Policy. T h e Council states candidly that in the beginning of its investigation it was intent on correcting the swing away from science, but this objective became “subsumed within the wider range of meeting the needs of the individual pu- I3Council for Scientific Policy, op. c k, p. 84. ” Frederick S. Dainton, “The Next Generation of Scientists and Technologists,” Lecture delivered at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, November, 1967. Downloaded by [JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY] at 20:43 16 March 2015 232 THE S W I N G AWAY FROM SCIENCE [January pil.”15 This aim is well in accord with current English educational thinking and practice. I n British primary schools, for instance (including infant schools for 4-8 year olds and junior schools for 8-12 year olds), the individual child is allowed freedom of choice in selecting learning activities to an extent unknown in most American public schools. Personal taste is felt to be an individual difference deserving of deference if the child is to grow up as a balanced individual who knows how to think for himself.’” THE REBELLION IS WORLDWIDE Discounted, if not ignored, by most scientists and science educators as a significant factor in the drop in physics enrollments is the.ongoing international revolt against science. According to Don Price, Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the theme of this rebellion is that science is an inhumane discipline.“ T h e fruits of science are identified with suppression of man and a soiling of his environment rather than as a source of human progis ress and freedom. T h e rebellion nearly worldwide, points out Price, and scientists quite naturally would rather not think about it. Instead, they have 1s Council for Scientific Policy, o p. cit., p. 84. “John Blackie, “The Character and Aims of British Primary Education,” in Geoffrey Howson (ed.), Children at School, Primary Education in Britain Today (London: Heinemann Educational Books, Ltd., 1 9 6 9), pp. 1 - 1 3. Don K. Price, “Purists and Politicians,” 17 been concerned about budgetary reactions to the rebellion. Price sees this as a mistake: “... the rebellion is a fundaa challenge that mental challenge-and poses problems scientists should think of critically rather than dismiss with contempt.”” are graduates I n England and in this country the social sciences have benefited from the decline in science enrollments.

    The Swing Away From Science · 1972 · DOI

  • are scarcer than they were; publicists, civic leaders and politicians who interest themselves in ,these matters now question the net social benefits of advances in technology, and are inclined to believe that expert opinion on any major issue is disputable by other experts.

    Some practical problems of scientist-advisers · 1972 · DOI

  • In sum, on my view it is this corporate critical- mindedness-which is a necessary condition for growth of know ledge in any discipline, and which has been the hall-mark of science since the sixteenth century-rather than any personal intellectual trait, which is lacking in cultures where magic is practised.

    The Rationality of Science versus the Rationality of Magic · 1971 · DOI

  • Free research, the results of which remain uncertain for the researchers who undertake it and the institutions which support it, appears to be an extreme case-a deviation from the postulates of utility and economic return-only so far as it is admitted that the research system includes an obscure and irreducible zone, doomed to hazard and surprise.

    Science Policy and Its Myths · 1970 · DOI

  • Such is the environ- ment to which modern man, be he man of action or of thought, poet or architect, no longer fears to belong; such is the exceptional environment which will provide for future towns the scenes of the public life of societies to come, the cosmic coordinates which are lacking in them and the necessary power to rise up through the centuries as the Sites, above all, on which the industrial society and the scientific universe are to meet.

    The Future of Culture · 1969 · DOI

  • watch, the man to put your money on, is not the man who wants to make "a survey" or a "more detailed study" the but the man with the notebook, man with the alternative hypotheses and the crucial experiments, the man who knows how to answer your Question of disproof and is already working on it. There are some really hard prob- lems, some high-information problems, ahead of us in several fields, problems of photosynthesis, of cellular organiza- tion, of the molceular structure and or- ganization of the nervous system, not to mention some of our social and in- ternational problems. It seems to me that the method of most rapid prog- ress in such complex areas, the most effective way of using our brains, is going to be to set down explicitly at each step just what the question is, and what all the alternatives are, and then to set up crucial experiments to try to disprove some. Problems of this com- if they can be solved at all, plexity, can be solved only by men generating and excluding possibilities with maxi- mum effectiveness, to obtain a high de- gree of information per unit time-men willing to work a little bit at thinking. When whole groups of us begin to concentrate like that, I believe we may see the molecular-biology phenomenon repeated over and over again, with or- increases in the rate der-of-magnitude in almost of scientific understanding every field.

    Strong Inference · 1964 · DOI

  • Although Reichenbach recently proposed to replace strict causality by probable implication, he was scarcely aware that such a probabilistic interpretation of uncertainty relationships agreed with the conclusions of Cournot, Renouvier, Boutroux, James, Bergson, Peirce, and, more recently, Whitehead.

    Toward a Widening of the Notion of Causality · 1959 · DOI

  • And in general it draws crucial distinctions between types of electoral system which in the past seem all too often to have been lumped Of course the parties in ‘third’ place may differ from one constituency to another so that unless we introduce further assumptions we cannot conclude that the absolute number in the field in Case 111 will be limited to the same number as in Case I.

    Models, Theories, and the Theory of Political Parties · 1959 · DOI

  • By Derek van Abbe M Y title implies a double problem: on the one hand the reliability of Eckermann's interpre tation of Goethe; on the other, the factual reliability of the work as a whole. It is necessary to say something about this second question first since it is so palpably vital if Eckermann is to be taken at all seriously. Not that a negative answer to either question need detract from the literary value of the Gesprache. Nietzsche's description of it as "das beste deutsche Buch, das es gibt" may hold even if the complete work were proved to be mere fiction.

    I. On Correcting Eckermann's Perspectives · 1954 · DOI

  • Clarifying how such grounds can be established in unmanipulable cases remains an open task, but recognising this requirement is essential for understanding the scope and limits of manipulationist approaches to causation.

    Extending Causation Beyond Manipulation: Analogical Reasoning in Two Theories of Causation · 2026 · DOI

  • In other words, there is a deep and underexplored connection between our human capacity to lead meaningful lives, and the fact that we are limited epistemic agents inhabiting an ontological rainforest. and no further investigation into this topic will be required.

    Re-Engineering Wimsatt for Limited Beings · 2026 · DOI

  • While it is not uncommon for classical realists to ground their theories in a biologically-informed view of human nature, the specific influence of Darwinian scientific and social Darwinist thought remains underexplored.

    Ideas of Darwinism in the theory of Hans J. Morgenthau · 2025 · DOI

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64 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 4,589 Philosophy and History of Science papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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