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Scientists’ Reuse of Old Empirical Data: Epistemological Aspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

James W. McAllister
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Abstract

This article investigates epistemological aspects of scientists’ reuse of empirical data over decades and centuries. Giving examples, I discuss three respects in which empirical data are historical entities and the implications for the notion of data reuse. First, any data reuse necessitates metadata, which specify the data’s circumstances of origin. Second, interpretation of historical data often requires the tools of humanities disciplines, which produce a further historicization of data. Finally, some qualitative social scientists hold that data are personal to the researcher who coconstructs them in the research process and are therefore skeptical about the prospects of reusing data.

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Philosophy of Science , Volume 85 , Issue 5 , December 2018 , pp. 755 - 766
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Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

My thanks to Sabina Leonelli for organizing the symposium “Data in Time: The Epistemology of Historical Data,” 25th Biennial Meeting, Philosophy of Science Association, Atlanta, November 2016; the other speakers, Rachel Ankeny, David Sepkoski, and Alison Wylie; the audience for stimulating discussion; and Wendy Parker and two unnamed referees for comments on a previous draft.

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