Scientific discovery is the process of generating novel ideas that form the basis for further advancements in science. For example, scientists who discover a new material that is harder than steel or a way to treat smallpox may go on to develop better weapons or medical treatments. While scientific discoveries are often made by chance, there is a process that produces them and it can be analyzed.
In the history of philosophy, many philosophers have been concerned with understanding how scientific discovery works. There has been a long tradition of concern with the nature of the “eureka moment,” which is the sudden, unanalyzable, and sometimes mysterious leap of insight that occurs when a scientist becomes aware of something previously unknown. The main disagreements have focused on whether the process of developing a hypothesis – or “colligation” in Whewell’s terms – is, or is not, a part of discovery proper and on whether it can be guided by rules.
In recent decades, however, interest in scientific discovery has revived and scholars have been seeking to understand the cognitive processes that produce novel ideas. Philosophical responses to this question typically combine philosophical analysis of actual reasoning patterns with information from empirical studies of human cognition, including research on creativity. Depending on the approach, these resources may include cognitive science, computational research, and empirical studies of human perception and imagination (Kounios & Beeman 2009). Different approaches focus on different aspects of scientific discovery but all offer insights into the ways that new ideas are generated.
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