THE EPISTEMIC ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC BACKGROUND IN PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT
V.S. Pronskikh1,2
1Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna
2Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, USA
Keywords: philosophy of scientific experimentation, theory ladenness, instrumental theories, background, particle physics, neutral currents
Abstract
Roles of experimental background related to the systematic (ignorance) error in experiment are considered within philosophy of scientific experimentation approaches. Based on an analysis of contemporary literature and taking high-energy and particle physics as examples, the roles of background in determining experimentalists’ practice, introducing instrumental and phenomenal theories in data analysis, requiring new theoretical models, and challenging closedness of experimental systems are studied. It is shown that in certain cases the background determination can introduce a theory of the phenomenon under scrutiny in data analysis.
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