Articles

Zufall und Freiheit im Kontext der Naturwissenschaften

Teil II: Exploratives Experimentieren, ideales Experiment und konditionaler Determinismus
Renatus Ziegler
Elemente der Naturwissenschaft 79, 2003, P. 22-50 | DOI: 10.18756/edn.79.22
Article | Language: German | €6.00
Export Article Citation as

Abstract:

Explorative experimentation brings about manifold conditions and looks for the respective sequels in order to analyse systematically sets of events with respect to condition-sequel relationships. In this setting one has to differentiate between necessary determinant and necessary concomitant conditions as well as accidental concomitant circumstances. The latter are analysed empirically through variations and control (fixing and minimizing) of conditions/circumstances. For this purpose the following methods, proposed by J. S. Mill, can be applied: the methods of agreement and difference, the indirect method of difference, the methods of residues and concomitant variation. They provide a solid background for the development of object-ori ented conceptions leading to the discovery of the laws of inorganic nature. However, they do not lead to the unconstrained determination of the components of condition-sequel relationships.

Among other components, a single ideal experiment within the physical sciences is based on conceptions for experimental settings and preparations of the necessary and sufficient conditions. The explicit prepara tion of such experiments is based on cause-effect relationships and therefore at odds with the assumption of the universal validity of conditional determinism; thus, each true experiment is a proof of the individual au tonomy of the will-power of the human being as experimenter. The seven phases of an individual ideal ex perimental process presented in this paper encompass a subtle interplay of diverse cause-effect and condi tion-sequel relationships. It can be shown that the demand for the reproducible character of an experiment is equivalent to the demand for an individual knowledge process and is not an intrinsic property of the ex periment itself.
 

References
  • Buchwald, J. Z. (Hg.) (1995): Scientific Practice: Theories and Stories of doing Physics. Chicago.
  • Fisher, R. A. (1926): The arrangement of field experiments. Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture, Band 33, S. 503–513.
  • Fisher, R. A. (1935): The Design of Experiments. London (New York, 12. Aufl. 1954).
  • Dingler, H. (1928): Das Experiment: Sein Wesen und seine Geschichte. München.
  • Gooding D., Pinch, T., Schaffer, S. (Hg.) (1989): The Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences. Cambridge.
  • Heidelberger, M., Steinle, F. (Hg.) (1998): Experimental Essays – Versuche zum Experiment. Baden-Baden.
  • Helmholtz, Herrmann von (1879): Die Tatsachen in der Wahrnehmung. Berlin (zitiert gemäß Nachdruck: Darmstadt 1959).
  • Hon, G. (1998): «If this be error»: Probing experiment with error. In: Heidelberger/Steinle: Experimental Essays – Versuche zum Experiment. Baden-Baden, S. 227–248.
  • Hume, D. (1888): A Treatise of Human Nature. Hg. von L. A. Selby-Bigge; zweite Aufl. hg. von P. H. Nidditch, Oxford 1978.
  • Janich, P. (1998): Was macht experimentelle Resultate empiriehaltig? Die methodisch-kulturalistische Theorie des Experimentes. In: Heidelberger/Steinle: Experimental Essays – Versuche zum Experiment. Baden-Baden, S. 93–112.
  • Krüger, L. (1992): Kausalität und Freiheit – Ein Beispiel für den Zusammenhang von Metaphysik und Lebenspraxis. Neue Hefte für Philosophie, Heft 32/33, S. 1–14.
  • Mill, J. S. (1868): A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation, Bd. I. London (7. Aufl.).
  • Raumsauer, C. (1953): Grundversuche der Physik in historischer Darstellung. Erster Band: Von den Fallgesetzen bis zu den elektrischen Wellen. Berlin-Göttingen-Heidelberg.
  • Steiner, R. (1894/1918): Die Philosophie der Freiheit, Dornach, GA 4.
  • Steinle, F. (1997): Entering new fields: Exploratory uses of experimentation. Philosophy of Science, Bd. 64 (Supplement Proceedings), S65–S74.
  • Steinle, F. (1998): Exploratives vs. theoriebestimmtes Experimentieren: Ampères erste Arbeiten zum Elektromagnetismus. In: Heidelberger/Steinle: Experimental Essays – Versuche zum Experiment. Baden-Baden, S. 272–297.
  • Steinle, F. (2002): «Das nächste ans Nächste reihen»: Goethe, Newton und das Experiment. Philosophia Naturalis, Bd. 39 (1), S. 141–172.
  • Theilmann, F. (2001a): Druck und Fliessen. Erziehungskunst, Bd. 65, Heft 7/8, S. 843–850.
  • Theilmann, F. (2001b): Auf Galileis Spuren? Physik treiben an der schiefen Ebene. Lehrerrundbrief, Nr. 72, S. 25–39.
  • Ziegler, R. (2003): Zufall und Freiheit im Kontext der Naturwissenschaften, Teil I: Kausalität und Konditionalität. Elemente d. N. 78, S. 178–193.