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Fermentation Theory: Empirical Difficulties and Guiding Assumptions

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Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 193))

Abstract

How do scientists react when their guiding assumptions run into empirical difficulties? This project leads us to consider six answers: (GA2.1-GA2.6). To evaluate the adequacy of these answers to the question of how scientists deal with empirical difficulties that confront their guiding assumptions, I will examine two empirical difficulties that confronted the guiding assumptions of early 20th-century biochemists working on fermentation and discuss the way the biochemical community responded to these difficulties.

Research on this paper has been supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which I hold jointly with Robert C. Richardson.

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© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Bechtel, W. (1988). Fermentation Theory: Empirical Difficulties and Guiding Assumptions. In: Donovan, A., Laudan, L., Laudan, R. (eds) Scrutinizing Science. Synthese Library, vol 193. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2855-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2855-8_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7784-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2855-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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