Things in Possible Experiments:

Science needs modality. Science is about finding out what the world is like and what there is but it is also about finding out what the world could be like ancl what there might be. While this may be controversial when taken as a metaphysically loaded claim about some ultimate picture of reality, it is just a simple descriptive truth when one takes actually practiced science into account. That practice is often not just about writing down what happened where and when, but about studying the things involved in such happenings, and fincling out what coulcl possibly happen with them. A !arge amount of the vocabulary used in the sciences is dispositional in nature, and while this may be more easily visible in the so-called special sciences like biology, it is also true of fundamental physics. One does not even neecl to focus on linguistic issues to see the importance of modality. Think of experiment, a crucial ingredient in modern science: experiments consist in the manipulation of the course of nature in the interest of scientific insight in active intervention on what is happening, in order to bring about something eise. The very notion of an experiment presupposes an acknowledgment of different possible courses of events. Experiments also involve the prevention of unwanted disturbances vibrations, electrical fields, or variations of temperature, depending on the case and shielding these ofT can be difficult and costly; so it is important to know which disturbances are possible and what their effect woulcl be.