Study On Ian Hacking’s Idea: Experiment Has Its Own Life

There merged a new school in western philosophy of science called “The NewExperimentalism” in1980s, the school’s founder Ian Hacking research creativelyfrom a total new perspective-experiment and try to find a more solid foundation forscience. In Hacking’s views, experiment is more fundamental than theory, so he puthis research emphasis on scientific experiment and explanation.Philosophy of science belongs to broad linguistic philosophy originally, we haveto admit that the transfer from Epistemology Turn to Linguistic Turn has indeedovercome many traditional philosophic issues, but the infatuation of linguistic orrepresentationism and theory-dominated tradition makes experiment itself unable toenter the view of philosophers, which represent science. The new experimentalism,represented by Ian Hacking, turn their minds to the forgotten area, and put forward thenew idea of “experiment has a life of its own”.This thesis expounds the backgroundof Hacking’s view in the first and second chapter, then elaborates its ideologicalcomprehensively, and states its contribution, shortcomings and the revelation to thedevelopment of nowadays science–make the unity of simplicity and diversity cometrue.