996006 Conceptual challenges to scientific methodology (S) (SoSe 2025)

Textbook descriptions of the “scientific method” are widely known to be highly simplified pictures serving pedagogical purposes. However, the idea that we can demarcate scientific approaches or domains from non-scientific ones by appealing to methodological differences is crucial to scientists, and it is still at the centre of heated debates in the philosophy and critical studies of science. While it is generally acknowledged that methodologies greatly vary across scientific domains, the appeal of methodological boundaries, whether for epistemological or merely for demarcation purposes, is still strong. In this block seminar, we will review classic and contemporary challenges to the notions of the scientific method and to the relationship between its core conceptual constituents: theory, observation, experimentation, and evidence. For example, measurement is often considered a crucial source of evidence to test scientific theories. Yet, on what basis do scientists come to rely on the fact that a depression scale or an economic development index is capturing the attribute of interest? Which theoretical and non-empirical considerations shape the development of new measurement techniques, and how?
The seminar will be based on group discussions of pre-circulated texts and practical activities in small groups that will relate the main discussion topics to the individual research and cases of participants. The seminar will have an interdisciplinary approach, in that the selected readings will bring not only philosophical but also historical and sociological perspectives, as well as a historical contextualization of the philosophical sources.
Given the breadth of this theme, the focus of the seminar will be narrowed down to one of the following topics:
- How do we know what we’re actually measuring? Historical and epistemological challenges to measurement and quantification (special focus on human and social sciences)
- Can the data speak for themselves? The challenges of theory-ladenness to ‘pure’ observational and experimental evidence
- Can methods define science? Science, pseudoscience and the challenges of demarcation
During the preparatory meeting at the start of the summer semester, interested participants will have the opportunity to discuss their preferences with respect to the proposed topics with the course instructor.