Making Knowledge: Synthesis and the Aims of Science

FAIN: FT-278937-21

Julia Bursten
University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, KY 40506-0004)

Research and writing a book about how the study of nanotechnology contributes to the philosophy of science.

The branch of philosophy known as epistemology investigates how human knowledge works. The foundational question of this discipline is “How do we know?” That is, what counts as knowledge, and when do we have it? Science is often cited as generating special access to certain kinds of knowledge, but philosophical study of how science contributes to epistemology has primarily analyzed scientific theories, models, and explanations as the houses of knowledge. Philosophers have overlooked how the fruits of scientific making — that is, the synthesis of chemicals, materials, and biological parts — contribute to the structure and character of scientific knowledge. Using case studies from nanoscience, this project will establish an account of how synthesis generates and shapes scientific knowledge. The account will form the concluding chapter of my in-progress debut monograph, which concerns the contributions of nanoscience to philosophy of science.