What kind of explanations can serendipity provide?
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Serendipity is a concept that addresses a peculiar phenomenon in science: the act of finding or discovering something by chance or without looking for it. Since the beginning of this century, scholars have considered the convolute implications of serendipity, which have been at the center of an emerging area of research called Serendipity Science. One thing that has escaped scholarly attention is what serendipity offers us in terms of explanations. What kind of explanations does serendipity offer? And explanations of what? This article aims to answer these questions by focusing on the open problems related to serendipity and its capacity for explanation in science. In the first section, we will briefly discuss why serendipity appears problematic in the philosophy of science. In the second section, we will maintain that serendipity is a term that rightfully identifies at least two sets of explanatory reasoning: one that we have called the Prospective Explanation, given during the serendipitous process, and the Retrospective Explanation, which emerges only after the research is concluded. By discussing the difference between these two explanatory dynamics, we will illustrate that serendipity should be addressed by providing valuable information about why a discovery has emerged and how it is justified in the scientific context.
Authors: Selene Arfini, Matteo Costa
Institutions: University of Pavia, Sapienza University of Rome
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,190
OpenAlex ID: W4412466467