Inductive reasoning in the context of discovery: Analogy as an experimental stratagem in the history and philosophy of science |
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Authors: | Amy A. Fisher |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RH, United Kingdom;2. Faculty of Science & Centre for Science and Culture, Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Friedrich-Streib-Str. 2, 96450 Coburg, Germany |
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Abstract: | Building on Norton's “material theory of induction,” this paper shows through careful historical analysis that analogy can act as a methodological principle or stratagem, providing experimentalists with a useful framework to assess data and devise novel experiments. Although this particular case study focuses on late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century experiments on the properties and composition of acids, the results of this investigation may be extended and applied to other research programs. A stage in-between what Steinle calls “exploratory experimentation” and robust theory, I argue that analogy encouraged research to substantiate why the likenesses should outweigh the differences (or vice versa) when evaluating results and designing experiments. |
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Keywords: | Analogy Material theory of induction Context of discovery Electrochemistry Theory of acids Philosophy of experiment |
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