top of page
Figura%201_edited.jpg

Our research includes a detailed study of a non-exploratory, theory-centred experimental system in visual neuroscience: the installation of “free-viewing” as an experimental system to test the Temporal Correlation Hypothesis (TCH) in the “Neurosistemas” laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Chile, between 1998 and 2008. The choice of this case responds to four reasons: (1) during the last years, the philosophy of experimental practice in the neurosciences has had a vigorous development. Issues actively discussed include, among others, the validity of results that are confirmed across different experimental paradigms, the possibility of constructing causal maps for planning new research, causality in the manipulation and representation of mechanisms, and the role of instrumentation in theory-testing. These investigations provide the ideal context for discussing our main hypotheses. (2) A large part of the literature in the philosophy of neuroscience has been focused mainly on cases from the neurobiology of memory, and current research in visual neuroscience has been neglected. For that reason, our results might contribute to the confirmation or disconfirmation of current relevant claims in the literature. (3) We will be studying a system that was designed, installed and put into operation with the explicit purpose of gathering evidence to confirm a pre-existing hypothesis. The system provides, therefore, a very different context from the one we may expect in exploratory research. (4) Last but not least, the study of a case of scientific practice in Chile contributes in a novel way to the local development of the philosophy of science.

bottom of page