Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Just as the spontaneity and novelty of consciousness depends on the regularity
and stability of physics and chemistry, so too thought relies upon the stability of
language and cultural norms. Thought is partly dependent and constrained by
language but it grows and thrives by altering these constraints through the creation
of new words that redefining the old by recasting them in connection with other
players, other contexts of interaction. Scientific knowledge is necessarily
constrained by vast networks of vocabularies, categories, procedures, algorithms,
models, instrument, data, etc. Nevertheless, knowledge continues to grow because
scientists design experimental conditions and induce data to which the network of
the known may not apply very well, or at all. On such occasions scientists must
improvise activities based on partially applicable existing models. Improvisation
takes the form of metaphorical and instrumental incursions into the unknown.
Boyle knew this, and MacDonald sees this as part of normal life in a research
lab: metaphors, analogies and models are retained only so long as they work to
achieve well-articulated goals identified by the changing norms, standards and
challenges of disciplinary cultures. One such goal is publication.
Graves recounts that the original draft of MacDonalds article was rejected and
reviewers offered suggestions for collecting additional data. Rather than running
the experiment again in order to obtain new data, MacDonald presented a different
selection of data previously gathered. MacDonald coupled his additional data with
citations of data and theories about the photoconductivity of similar amorphous
semiconductors. Graves analyzed the manner in which MacDonald used metonyms
to make claims about structure on the basis of the semiconductor
s behavior under
various conditions.
23
In this case, which is by no means uncommon in scientific
literature, select processes were made to stand for structures whose existence the
peer reviewer initially contested but finally accepted. The phenomena and actual
entity under discussion, i.e., photoconductivity in an amorphous semiconductor, did
not change between the prepublication draft and the published version: in both
phases, MacDonald tried to establish the existence of a specific kind of structure for
the photoconductive thin film they had generated using the IBAD process in their
lab. Graves analyzes shifts in reasoning and presentation of ideas surrounding the
manufacture and testing of the a-SiN
x
. Graves
'
summary of the process asserts that
the team
'
pursued a cyclical process of collecting measurements
...
, conjecturing about the process
(es) that yielded those measurements, and pursuing various explanations for the physical
structure suggested by the combination of data and theory. Through this complex process,
they derived evidence of the existence of particular characteristics such as structural
properties or flaws in the a-SiN
x
. However, the movement, back and forth between real
entities and proposed theoretical concepts and processes often blurred the boundary
between what was real and what was theoretical. (Graves
2005
, 193)
Graves here conflates “real” with “data.” This conflation indicates her tacit
commitment to a metaphysical realism that is at odds with the various alternatives
23
Metonymy is a specific kind of metaphor that makes a part, or aspect, stand for the whole e.g.,
saying “friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
