Identifying Strategies for Practically Useful and Epistemically Sound Research in Chemistry
Basel Myhub (doctoral project)
My research project is part of the broader DFG project “Research in the Context of Practice” led by Martin Carrier. In my research project, I will investigate various research heuristics in order to identify successful strategies, that is, the ones that maximize practical benefits without undermining epistemic robustness. In particular, I consider the following questions: What are the research heuristics that should be employed in order to achieve practical benefits? Does scientific justification and test deteriorate under demand-driven conditions? What role does theoretical understanding play in practically successful models? While the prima facie expectation is that a combination of knowledge-driven and demand-driven research heuristics will work best under certain conditions, my research will test this expectation and try to define the working conditions by considering some current- and maybe also historical- cases of chemical research projects.