Past as prologue: Approaches to the study of confirmation in science

AbstractIn the 1970s, quantitative science studies were being pursued by sociologists, historians, and information scientists. Philosophers were part of this discussion, but their role would diminish as sociology of science asserted itself. An antiscience bias within the sociology of...

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Main Author: Henry Small
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The MIT Press 2020-01-01
Series:Quantitative Science Studies
Online Access:https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1025/96097/Past-as-prologue-Approaches-to-the-study-of
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author Henry Small
author_facet Henry Small
author_sort Henry Small
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description AbstractIn the 1970s, quantitative science studies were being pursued by sociologists, historians, and information scientists. Philosophers were part of this discussion, but their role would diminish as sociology of science asserted itself. An antiscience bias within the sociology of science became evident in the late 1970s, which split the science studies community, notably causing the “citationists” to go their own way. The main point of contention was whether science was a rational, evidence-based activity. To reverse the antiscience trend, it will be necessary to revive philosophical models of science, such as Bayesian confirmation theory or explanatory coherence models, where theory-experiment agreement plays a decisive role. A case study from the history of science is used to illustrate these models, and bibliometric and text-based methods are proposed as a source of data to test these models.
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spelling doaj.art-376f600f8bd5493b8da432550c1219dc2022-12-22T01:00:40ZengThe MIT PressQuantitative Science Studies2641-33372020-01-01131025104010.1162/qss_a_00063Past as prologue: Approaches to the study of confirmation in scienceHenry Small0SciTech Strategies Inc., Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004 (USA) AbstractIn the 1970s, quantitative science studies were being pursued by sociologists, historians, and information scientists. Philosophers were part of this discussion, but their role would diminish as sociology of science asserted itself. An antiscience bias within the sociology of science became evident in the late 1970s, which split the science studies community, notably causing the “citationists” to go their own way. The main point of contention was whether science was a rational, evidence-based activity. To reverse the antiscience trend, it will be necessary to revive philosophical models of science, such as Bayesian confirmation theory or explanatory coherence models, where theory-experiment agreement plays a decisive role. A case study from the history of science is used to illustrate these models, and bibliometric and text-based methods are proposed as a source of data to test these models.https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1025/96097/Past-as-prologue-Approaches-to-the-study-of
spellingShingle Henry Small
Past as prologue: Approaches to the study of confirmation in science
Quantitative Science Studies
title Past as prologue: Approaches to the study of confirmation in science
title_full Past as prologue: Approaches to the study of confirmation in science
title_fullStr Past as prologue: Approaches to the study of confirmation in science
title_full_unstemmed Past as prologue: Approaches to the study of confirmation in science
title_short Past as prologue: Approaches to the study of confirmation in science
title_sort past as prologue approaches to the study of confirmation in science
url https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1025/96097/Past-as-prologue-Approaches-to-the-study-of
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