Craver C.F., Bickle J., Barwich A.S. (eds.) The Tools of Neuroscience Experiment: Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives

New York: Routledge, 2022. — 363 p.This volume establishes the conceptual foundation for sustained investigation into tool development in neuroscience. Neuroscience relies on diverse and sophisticated experimental tools, and its ultimate explanatory target—our brains and hence the organ driving our behaviors—catapults the investigation of these research tools into a philosophical spotlight.
The chapters in this volume integrate the currently scattered work on tool development in neuroscience into the broader philosophy of science community. They also present an accessible compendium for neuroscientists interested in the broader theoretical dimensions of their experimental practices. The chapters are divided into five thematic sections. Section 1 discusses the development of revolutionary research tools across neuroscience’s history and argues to various conclusions concerning the relationship between new research tools and theory progress in neuroscience. Section 2 shows how a focus on research tools and their development in neuroscience transforms some traditional epistemological issues and questions about knowledge production in philosophy of science. Section 3 speaks to the most general questions about the way we characterize the nature of the portion of the world that this science addresses. Section 4 discusses hybrid research tools that integrate laboratory and computational methods in exciting new ways. Finally, Section 5 extends research on tool development to the related science of genetics.
The Tools of Neuroscience Experiment will be of interest to philosophers and philosophically minded scientists working at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience.Foreword
Editors’ Introduction
Research Tools in Relation to Theories
Tinkering in the Lab
Tools, Experiments, and Theories: An Examination of the Role of Experiment Tools
Science in Practice in Neuroscience: Cincinnati Water Maze in the Making
Where Molecular Science Meets Perfumery: A Behind- the-Scenes Look at SCAPE Microscopy and Its Theoretical Impact on Current Olfaction
A Different Role for Tinkering: Brain Fog, COVID-19, and the Accidental Nature of Neurobiological Theory Development
Research Tools and Epistemology
Dissemination and Adaptiveness as Key Variables in Tools That Fuel Scientific Revolutions
Toward an Epistemology of Intervention: Optogenetics and Maker’s Knowledge
Triangulating Tools in the Messiness of Cognitive Neuroscience
Prediction, Explanation, and the “Toolbox” Problem
Research Tools, Integration, Circuits, and Ontology
How Do Tools Obstruct (and Facilitate) Integration in Neuroscience?
Understanding Brain Circuits: Do New Experimental Tools Need to Address New Concepts?
Cognitive Ontologies, Task Ontologies, and Explanation in Cognitive Neuroscience
Tools and Integrative Pluralism
“It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right”: The Coevolution of Technological and Mathematical Tools in Neuroscience
Hybrid Brains: Interfacing Living Neurons and Circuits with Computational Models
Tool Use and Development Beyond Neuroscience
Beyond Actual Difference Making: Causal Selections in Genetics
List of Contributors