“Location” Incommensurability and “Replication” Indeterminacy: Clarifying an Entrenched Conflation by Using an Involved Approach

Reproducible results and repeatable measurements at the same location are fundamental to science, yet of grave concern to scientists. Involvement in biological re-surveys under MVZ-Berkeley, Harvard-LTER and Hamaarag elucidated “replication” and “location” and untangled “incommensurability” from “no fact of the matter” and “indeterminacy.” All cases revealed incommensurability without indeterminacy on the smallest scale and indeterminacy without incommensurability on higher scales, with communication failure in the former and successful workarounds in the latter. I argue that an involved philosophy helps clarify fundamental concepts in this case, and since it could also help other cases it therefore should be examined in every case before being ruled out.