Performance and Participation in Scientific Experimentation

An Exploration of Human Thinking as Mental Action, from Scientific Experimentation to Systematic Thought Experiments
Elemente der Naturwissenschaft 119, 2023, S. 5-35 | DOI: 10.18756/edn.119.5

Zusammenfassung:

Experimentieren gehört wesentlich zu den Naturwissenschaften. Experimente dienen verschiedenen Zielen. Sie unterscheiden sich deutlich von blossen Beobachtungen, bei denen natürlich auftretende Prozesse registriert und gemessen werden. In Experimenten werden spezifische notwendige/ hinreichende Bedingungen festgehalten, um die Experimentieranordnung von der Umgebung zu isolieren und um darüber hinaus den Verlauf der Ereignisse in dieser oder jener Weise zu beeinflussen. Der Fokus im vorliegenden Artikel liegt auf der Rolle des tätigen Denkens im Prozess des Experimentierens. Üblicherweise wird das tätige Denken als gegeben hingenommen und die Analyse des Experimentierens konzentriert sich auf Fragen der Kausalität, der verwendeten Instrumente und Materialien usw. Es wird vorgeschlagen, den Fokus der Analyse des Experimentierens zu erweitern, insbesondere durch den Einbezug der performativen Qualität des tätigen Denkens, indem zusätzlich Gedankenexperimente, dann Experimente des reinen Denkens einbezogen werden, und zuletzt dasjenige, was hier reine Gedankenexperimente genannt wird. Denken ist eine Fähigkeit, die allen Menschen zur Verfügung steht, und folglich sind Menschen in der Lage, dies bei sich selbst systematisch zu untersuchen. Es wird dargestellt, welche Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen solche Experimente aus der Erste- Person-Perspektive bieten und was sie zur Untersuchung wissenschaftlichen Experimentierens beitragen können.

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