Error and Uncertainty in Scientific Practice (HIST and PHIL of Technoscience)

Assessment of error and uncertainty is a vital component of both natural and social science. This edited volume presents case studies of research practices across a wide spectrum of scientific fields. It compares methodologies and presents the ingredients needed for an overarching framework applicable to all.

Marcel Boumans is Associate Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics at the University of Amsterdam and the Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research is marked by three Ms: modelling, measurement and mathematics. His main research focus is on understanding empirical research practices in economics from (combined) historical and philosophical perspectives. On these topics he has published a monograph, How Economists Model the World into Numbers (London: Routledge, 2005); edited the volume Measurement in Economics: A Handbook (New York: Elsevier, 2007); co-authored a textbook, Economic Methodology: Understanding Economics as a Science (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); and co-edited the volume Histories on Econometrics (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2011)., >Giora Hon, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Haifa, Israel, published widely on the concept of error in science and philosophy. His edited book with Jutta Schickore and Friedrich Steinle, Going Amiss in Experimental Research, appeared in 2009 (Springer). For his recent work (with Bernard R. Goldstein) on modelling, see ‘Maxwell’s Contrived Analogy: An Early Version of the Methodology of Modeling’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 43 (2012), pp. 236–57., >Arthur C. Petersen is Chief Scientist at the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Professor of Science and Environmental Public Policy at the VU University Amsterdam, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and University College London, and Research Affiliate at MIT. He studied physics and philosophy, obtained PhD degrees in atmospheric sciences and philosophy of science, and now also finds disciplinary homes in sociology and political science. Most of his research is about managing uncertainty.