&HPS1 
Thursday, 11 October - Saturday, 13 October 2007
Center for Philosophy of Science
University of Pittsburgh

Thematic Session

Beyond Case-Studies
Moderator: Hasok Chang

What can we conclude from a handful of case studies? This has been a vexing question for anyone trying to make philosophy of science more historically informed, and also for anyone trying to understand general trends in history. The field of history and philosophy of science has witnessed too many hasty philosophical generalizations based on a small number of conveniently chosen case studies. One might even speculate that dissatisfaction with such methodological shoddiness contributed to a widespread disillusionment with the whole HPS enterprise in the last few decades, giving philosophers and historians the feeling that they did not have much to learn from each other's disciplines.

In this session we propose to articulate new and more productive ways of forging the relation between concrete historical studies and abstract philosophical arguments.

I will contribute a presentation, advocating a move away from viewing historical cases as the inductive evidence-base for general philosophical theses. I emphasize that an abstract philosophical framework is necessary to tell any concrete story at all. If historians do not have ready philosophical concepts with which to frame their episodes, then they are compelled to create fresh ones, whether or not they realize that is what they are doing. Therefore, history-writing can be a very effective method of generating fresh philosophical insights. I illustrate these claims by reference to some of my own recent works in HPS; this will also raise, and solve, a problem of reflexivity: how can we use case studies to show how to go beyond case studies?

We invite other contributions to this session which offer either general proposals that complement or contradict my own, or concrete studies which show the way forward by example.