Observability And Observation In Physical Science
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Observability and Observation in Physical Science
Author: Peter Kosso
language: en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date: 2012-12-06
The concept of observability of entities in physical science is typically analyzed in terms of the nature and significance of a dichotomy between observables and unobservables. In this book, however, this categorization is resisted and observability is analyzed in a descriptive way in terms of the information which one can receive through interaction with objects in the world. The account of interaction and the transfer of information is done using applicable scientific theories. In this way the question of observability of scientific entities is put to science itself. Several examples are presented which show how this interaction-information account of observability is done. It is demonstrated that observability has many dimensions which are in general orthogonal. The epistemic significance of these dimensions is explained. This study is intended primarily as a method for understanding problems of observability rather than as a solution to those problems. The important issue of scientific realism and its relation to observability, however, demands attention. Hence, the implication of the interaction-information account for realism is drawn in terms of the epistemic significance of the dimensions of observability. This amounts to specifying what it is about good observations that make them objective evidence for scientific theories.
The World Observed/The World Conceived
Author: Hans Radder
language: en
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Release Date: 2014-06-26
Observation and conceptual interpretation constitute the two major ways through which human beings engage the world. The World Observed/The World Conceived presents an innovative analysis of the nature and role of observation and conceptualization. While these two actions are often treated as separate, Hans Radder shows that they are inherently interconnected-that materially realized observational processes are always conceptually interpreted and that the meaning of concepts depends on the way they structure observational processes and abstract from them. He examines the role of human action and conceptualization in realizing observational processes and develops a detailed theory of the relationship between observation, abstraction, and the meaning of concepts. The World Observed/The World Conceived will prove useful to many areas of scholarly study including ontology, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, science studies, and cognitive science.
Studies in the Methodology of Natural and Social Sciences
Studies in the Methodology of Natural and Social Sciences explore from the point of view of philosophy, philosophy of science, methodology and semantics the methods of pretheoretical (empirical) measurement, theory construction, and methods of measurement that are already based on scientific theories. This exploration targets both the natural and the social sciences. In the field of natural sciences, subject to theoretical and metatheoretical analyses are Huygens' experimental and computational methods for determining the acceleration of gravity, the methods of constructing a thermometer, and Newtonian mechanics. With respect to the field of social science, it analyzes Marx's methods of theory construction presented in his work in the area of economics, the methodological approaches employed in David Ricardo's theory of value, sociological Grounded Theory, Rational Choice Theory, and Historical Sociology. A significant attention is given to the philosophical reconstruction of the categories employed in the measurement methods and in the methods of construction of the analyzed theories.