Data-driven approaches to empirical discovery

In this paper we track the development of research in empirical discovery. We focus on four machine discovery systems that share a number of features: the use of data-driven heuristics to constrain the search for numeric laws; a reliance on theoretical terms; and the recursive application of a few general discovery methods. We examine each system in light of the innovations it introduced over its predecessors, providing some insight into the conceptual progress that has occurred in machine discovery. Finally, we reexamine this research from the perspectives of the history and philosophy of science.     

A Theory of Historical Discovery: The Construction of Componential Models

One of the major goals of 18th century chemistry was to determine the components of substances. In this paper we describe STAHL, a system that models significant portions of 18th century reasoning about compositional models. The system includes a number of heuristics for generating componential models from reactions, as well as error recovery mechanisms for dealing with inconsistent results. STAHL processes chemical reactions incrementally, and is therefore capable of reconstructing extended historic episodes, such as the century-long development of the phlogiston theory. We evaluate STAHL’s heuristics in the light of historical data, and conclude that the same reasoning mechanisms account for a variety of historical achievements, including Black’s models of mild alkali and Lavoisier’s oxygen theory. STAHL explains the generation of competing accounts of the same reactions, since the system’s reasoning chain depends on knowledge it has accumulated at earlier stages.