Abstract
The recent proliferation of types and accounts of experimentation in sustainability science still lacks philosophical reflection. The present paper introduces this burgeoning topic to the philosophy of science by identifying key notions and dynamics in sustainability experimentation, by discussing taxonomies of sustainability experimentation and by focusing on barriers to the transfer of evidence. It integrates three topics: the philosophy of experimentation; the sustainability science literature on experimentation; and discussions on values in science coming from the general philosophy of science, the social sciences, and sustainability science. The aim is to improve understanding of how sustainability experimentation has evolved, from a broader picture of the history and philosophy of science, with a specific focus on understanding evidence production and how evidence traveling in and from sustainability experiments can be improved, particularly in the context of complex and pervasive normative commitments of the research. By engaging in these topics, this research is one of the first philosophical accounts of sustainability experimentation, contributing both to the knowledge on specific philosophies of science and to the further development of an evidence-based sustainability science through a better understanding of the barriers to more relevant and usable knowledge.
Highlights
This article belongs to the Topical Collection: EPSA2019: Selected papers from the biennial conference in Geneva Guest Editors: Anouk Barberousse, Richard Dawid, Marcel Weber
The aim of the present study was to contribute to a deeper understanding of sustainability experimentation in the context of the philosophy of experimentation
It was investigated how key features of sustainability experimentation evolved from different experimental fields, notably biology and the social sciences, and which were the main driving forces of this development from a philosophical perspective
Summary
This article belongs to the Topical Collection: EPSA2019: Selected papers from the biennial conference in Geneva Guest Editors: Anouk Barberousse, Richard Dawid, Marcel Weber. Instead of a unified definition, different scientific disciplines have highlighted various aspects of experimentation, thereby contributing to John Dewey’s idea of a pluralistic ‘experimental society’ or ‘culture of experimentation’ (VanderVeen, 2011).. Instead of a unified definition, different scientific disciplines have highlighted various aspects of experimentation, thereby contributing to John Dewey’s idea of a pluralistic ‘experimental society’ or ‘culture of experimentation’ (VanderVeen, 2011).2 This idea grew during the twentieth century in the context of the social sciences, producing concepts such as – ‘society as laboratory’, ‘risk society’, ‘collective experimentation’, etc. Some recent systemic studies of experimentation in SS make the connection to the philosophy of science (e.g., to classical Baconian experimentation) as a point of reference for developing a somewhat broader view of experiments (e.g., Caniglia et al, 2017; Weiland et al, 2017), the recent proliferation of perspectives on sustainability experimentation needs a deeper, comprehensive philosophical account of the key notions and major dynamics. Page 3 of 22 83 better understanding of the philosophical motives, researchers’ roles, responsibilities and possible outcomes of experimentation, including experimental assumptions, learning, and how evidence travels in SS (transferability of experimental results)
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