On Discovery

How is new knowledge produced in the social, natural, and biomedical sciences? What is the role of serendipity versus planning? How has technology changed knowledge production, from AI to large datasets? This book presents insights into the pursuit of new knowledge from fields as diverse as medicine, engineering, linguistics, and theology. Over twenty researchers and scientists describe the modalities of discovery in their disciplines, offering a diverse survey of the social norms and politics of knowledge. Written in nontechnical language, this collection is designed to make research practices from widely different domains comprehensible to each other. A generative synthesis in the final chapter offers new insights into how discovery happens and its consequences for science and society. On Discovery will be essential reading for anyone interested in philosophical and social dimensions of knowledge.

• Offers a nontechnical introduction to processes of knowledge production from disciplines that are otherwise completely separate from each other
• Presents a window into the discovery processes of individual researchers
• Includes a concluding chapter and generative synthesis, positing a new way of thinking about discovery in contemporary science