«The form and function of scientific discoveries» Pp review

The issue under discussion in this article is scientific discovery. Traditionally a scientist is assigned to a particular discovery, but Caneva remarks that often there is overlap between what is attributed to the first and his own vision of his discovery and work.

The first explanatory hypothesis for this disparity is the existence of anachronical errors at historiographical work level. This position was rejected by the author, methodological error is not the answer he is looking for. He point to something that comes from the inherent characteristics of science itself.

The main thesis defended here are: 1) that what is commonly accepted as scientific discovery is essentially the result of a process by wich knowledge is reformulated in order to gain respect. The discovery is not an individual contribution that others have to recognize and accept, but represents a retrospective characterization achieved by the end of a complex manufacturing process of negotiation;

2) the thesis that affirms the reality of the phenomena described scientifically.

The author opposes himself to the social construction of knowledge. These one has as consequence first – to historicize the knowledge itself by apealing to a contigent context – and second – it also removes any claim of objective truth from science.

In order to prevent these dangerous consequences he gives us his own perspective on the subject. He focus on the representation’s conventional character because in the conventional nature of this process is involved a certain kind of objectivity:

The terminological agreement is needed before a phenomenon can be taken for granted as a way of being in the world (or as a way of the world being).

The concept ‘scientific discovery’ is closely linked to the concept of scientific fact. And all the transformations for wich discovery goes will strengthen the objectivity and factuality of what was discovered.

From a sociological point of view, discoveries are part of the intellectual structure of science.

The educational and professional alternative proposed by the author is the refusal to separate knowledge as a product (I mean as result) from its own production process (the path we need to do in order to achieve it).

1 - Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy by Kenneth L. Caneva (Hardcover - April 19, 1993)

2 - The Form and Function of Scientific Discoveries. Dibner Library Lecture, November 16, 2000 by Kenneth L. Caneva (Paperback - 2000)