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The difference a method makes : methods as epistemic objects in computational science
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Spencer, Matthew (2019) The difference a method makes : methods as epistemic objects in computational science. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 20 (3). pp. 313-327. doi:10.1080/1600910X.2019.1610018 ISSN 1600-910X.
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WRAP-difference-method-makes-methods-epistemic-objects-computational-science-Spencer-2019.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (572Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2019.1610018
Abstract
Computational science is intrinsically interdisciplinary; the methods of one scientist may be the objects of study for another. This essay is an attempt to develop an interdisciplinary framework that can analyse research into methods as a distinctive kind of epistemic orientation in science, drawing on two examples from fieldwork with a group of specialists in computer modelling. Where methods for simulation are objects of research in their own right, they are distinct in kind to the objects of simulation, and raise a different set of sociological and philosophical questions. Drawing on the historian Hans-Jorg Rheinberger’s theory of epistemic objects, I ask: what kind of epistemic object does a method make, and how is research organized around it? I argue that methods become objects of research as purposeful things, in terms of their enrolment in the intentional structure of the experimental system. And, as methods research tends to be interventionary, in the sense that its mode of study creates and modifies its objects, we therefore observe a practical recursion, a dynamic of scientific reinvention, a ‘tuning’ of experimental systems that sheds light on the form of these systems’ historicity, their differential self-reproduction.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Epistemics, Computer simulation | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory | ||||||
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis | ||||||
ISSN: | 1600-910X | ||||||
Official Date: | 30 April 2019 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 20 | ||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 313-327 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1080/1600910X.2019.1610018 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory on 30 Apr 2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1600910X.2019.1610018 | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 18 April 2019 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 30 October 2020 | ||||||
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