The Philosophy Of Scientific Experimentation

Hans Radder author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Pittsburgh Press

Published:23rd Feb '03

Should be back in stock very soon

The Philosophy Of Scientific Experimentation cover

The Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation is a collection of essays that focuses on the identification and clarification of philosophical issues in experimental science, such as the link between science and technology, the role of theory in experimentation involving material and causal intervention, and the impact of modeling and computer simulation on experimentation.

Collection of essays focused on the identification and clarification of philosophical issues in experimental science, such as the link between science and technology.

Since the late 1980s, the neglect of experiment by philosophers and historians of science has been replaced by a keen interest in the subject. In this volume, a number of prominent philosophers of experiment directly address basic theoretical questions, develop existing philosophical accounts, and offer novel perspectives on the subject, rather than rely exclusively on historical cases of experimental practice.
Each essay examines one or more of six interconnected themes that run throughout the collection: the philosophical implications of actively and intentionally interfering with the material world while conducting experiments; issues of interpretation regarding causality; the link between science and technology; the role of theory in experimentation involving material and causal intervention; the impact of modeling and computer simulation on experimentation; and the philosophical implications of the design, operation, and use of scientific instruments.

There are more issues, examples, and lessons for epistemologists in the study of scientific experimentation than are dreamt of in empiricist, pragmatist, post modernist, and other popular philosophies. This volume is an excellent place to find out about them. Several of its papers deserve to become classics—not just in philosophy of science, but in epistemology.

* Jim Bogen, University of Pittsburgh Center for Philosophy of Science *

Brings together work by some of the best philosophers now writing on experiment. . . . Anyone seriously interested in contemporary philosophy of science, or in better understanding of experimentation, will find this a valuable book.

* Joseph Rouse, Wesleyan University *

Presents a wide range of the kind of new and exciting work being done in the philosophy of experiment.

* Margaret Morrison, Trinity College, University of Toron

ISBN: 9780822957959

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

328 pages