The Force of Experimentation

To speak well of the sciences, this chapter argues, entails an exploration of the singularity of scientific practices, of what, like all other practices, makes them unlike all other practices. It follows the history of the detection of solar neutrinos and develops an argument affirming that it is in the processes of successful experimentation that the resources for countering skeptical sociological relativism regarding science—it's a practice just like any other—are to be found. Taking seriously the joy of scientists when their experiments are successful is crucial to speaking well of what they do.