ENTERING NEW FIELDS - EXPLORATORY USES OF EXPERIMENTATION

Starting with some illustrative examples, I develop a systematic accou nt of a specific type of experimentation-an experimentation which is n ot, as in the ''standard view'' driven by specific theories. It is typ ically practiced in periods in which no theory or-even more fundamenta lly-no conceptual framework is readily available. I call it explorator y experimentation and I explicate its systematic guidelines; From the historical examples I argue furthermore that exploratory experimentati on may have an immense, but hitherto widely neglected, epistemic signi ficance.