Chairperson of the College’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine—one of the few of its kind in the entire world—Schickore examines how scientists validate their empirical results, not only today but also in the past. Recent areas of inquiry include, for instance, the history and structure of controlled experiments.
“My main interest is how scientific knowledge is validated,” she said. “What makes scientific research ‘good’? What makes an empirical result ‘good’? When do we consider research outcomes reliable? And I’m particularly interested in how scientists themselves see these questions. Basically, to put a label on it, I’m interested in scientists’ own philosophies, and I trace how scientists’ philosophies have developed and changed over the centuries.”
The College of Arts