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Trialability

Sven Ove Hansson1

  • 1Division of Philosophy, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Teknikringen 76, 100 44, Stockholm, Sweden.

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
|July 11, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Directly action-guiding experiments, like agricultural field trials, were more common in traditional farming than medicine. This study introduces a framework to analyze this difference in "trialability," the ease of finding and verifying interventions.

Area of Science:

  • Methodology of Science
  • History of Science
  • Agricultural Science
  • Medical History

Background:

  • Directly action-guiding experiments (trials) assess intervention effectiveness, with clinical and agricultural trials as key examples.
  • These experiments have historical roots in various crafts and farming practices predating modern science.
  • Trialability, the ease of finding and verifying interventions for a desired outcome, is a crucial concept.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To introduce a novel framework for analyzing trialability across eleven distinct dimensions.
  • To compare the trialability of desired outcomes in traditional agriculture versus traditional (prescientific) medicine.
  • To explore how differences in trialability might explain historical adoption rates of action-guiding experiments.

Main Methods:

  • Development of a conceptual framework to dissect trialability into eleven measurable dimensions.
  • Comparative analysis applying this framework to historical practices in agriculture and medicine.
  • Qualitative assessment of intervention discovery and verification processes in both domains.

Main Results:

  • The study's framework reveals significant differences in trialability between traditional agriculture and medicine.
  • Trialability was found to be greater in several key respects within traditional agricultural practices compared to traditional medicine.
  • Specific dimensions contributing to higher trialability in agriculture were identified.

Conclusions:

  • The higher trialability in traditional agriculture provides a potential explanation for its earlier and more widespread use of directly action-guiding experiments.
  • Understanding trialability dimensions can offer insights into the historical development and adoption of experimental methodologies across different fields.
  • This framework can be applied to analyze trialability in contemporary practices and guide future research design.
Keywords:
Clinical trialsDirectly action-guiding experimentsField trialsTrialability

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