Volume 31, 2024
Progress and Technology
Wybo Houkes

Pages 59-74
https://doi.org/10.5840/harvardreview202522560
Progress in Application-Oriented Research
This paper presents an account of progress in application-oriented research, as found in the engineering and medical sciences. My account builds on work in the philosophy of science. After reviewing the main accounts of scientific progress, I present my variant of a functional, ¡®problem-solving¡¯ account for application-oriented research, for which I distinguish various forms of progress. I illustrate this account with a case study of research on nuclear fusion.