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On the Locality of Data and Claims about Phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Sabina Leonelli
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Abstract

Bogen and Woodward characterized data as embedded in the context in which they are produced (‘local’) and claims about phenomena as retaining their significance beyond that context (‘nonlocal’). This view does not fit sciences such as biology, which successfully disseminate data via packaging processes that include appropriate labels, vehicles, and human interventions. These processes enhance the evidential scope of data and ensure that claims about phenomena are understood in the same way across research communities. I conclude that the degree of locality of both data and claims about phenomena varies depending on the packaging used to make them travel and on the research setting in which they are used.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 76 , Issue 5 , December 2009 , pp. 737 - 749
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

Mary Morgan's insightful suggestions and advice have been crucial to the development of this article. Warm thanks also to Maureen O’Malley, the ‘facts’ group, Julian Reiss, David Teira, and audiences at the SPSP (Society for the Philosophy of Science in Practice) 2007 and the PSA 2008 conferences for very helpful discussions. This research was funded by the Leverhulme/Economic and Social Research Council project The Nature of Evidence: How Well Do ‘Facts’ Travel? (grant F/07004/Z) at the Department of Economic History, London School of Economics, and by the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society at the University of Exeter.

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