Inventing Temperature Measurement and Scientific Progress

by Chang, Hasok

• ISBN13: 9780195171273
• ISBN10: 0195171276
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

What is temperature, and how can we measure it correctly? These may seem like simple questions, but the most renowned scientists struggled with them throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In Inventing Temperature, Chang examines how scientists first created thermometers; how they measuredtemperature beyond the reach of standard thermometers; and how they managed to assess the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves. In a discussion that brings together the history of science with the philosophy of science, Chang presents the simple eet challenging epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. Chang's book shows that many itemsof knowledge that we take for granted now are in fact spectacular achievements, obtained only after a great deal of innovative thinking, painstaking experiments, bold conjectures, and controversy. Lurking behind these achievements are some very important philosophical questions about how and whenpeople accept the authority of science.

Author Biography

Hasok Chang is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science at University College London.

Table of Contents

Note on Translation	xv
Chronology	xvii
Introduction	3	(5)
1 Keeping the Fixed Points Fixed	8	(49)
Narrative: What to Do When Water Refuses to Boil at the Boiling Point	8	(1)
Blood, Butter, and Deep Cellars: The Necessity and Scarcity of Fixed Points	8	(31)
The Vexatious Variations of the Boiling Point	11	(6)
Superheating and the Mirage of True Ebullition	17	(6)
Escape from Superheating	23	(5)
The Understanding of Boiling	28	(7)
A Dusty Epilogue	35	(4)
Analysis: The Meaning and Achievement of Fixity	39	(18)
The Validation of Standards: Justificatory Descent	40	(4)
The Iterative Improvement of Standards: Constructive Ascent	44	(4)
The Defense of Fixity: Plausible Denial and Serendipitous Robustness	48	(5)
The Case of the Freezing Point	53	(4)
2. Spirit, Air, and Quicksilver	57	(46)
Narrative: The Search for the "Real" Scale of Temperature	57	(27)
The Problem of Nomic Measurement	57	(3)
De Luc and the Method of Mixtures	60	(4)
Caloric Theories against the Method of Mixtures	64	(5)
The Calorist Mirage of Gaseous Linearity	69	(5)
Regnault: Austerity and Comparability	74	(5)
The Verdict: Air over Mercury	79	(5)
Analysis: Measurement and Theory in the Context of Empiricism	84	(19)
The Achievement of Observability, by Stages	84	(5)
Comparability and the Ontological Principle of Single Value	89	(3)
Minimalism against Duhemian Holism	92	(4)
Regnault and Post-Laplacian Empiricism	96	(7)
3. To Go Beyond	103	(56)
Narrative: Measuring Temperature When Thermometers Melt and Freeze	103	(38)
Can Mercury Be Frozen?	104	(3)
Can Mercury Tell Us Its Own Freezing Point?	107	(6)
Consolidating the Freezing Point of Mercury	113	(5)
Adventures of a Scientific Potter	118	(5)
It Is Temperature, but Not As We Know It?	123	(5)
Ganging Up on Wedgwood	128	(13)
Analysis: The Extension of Concepts beyond Their Birth Domains	141	(18)
Travel Advisory from Percy Bridgman	142	(6)
Beyond Bridgman: Meaning, Definition, and Validity	148	(4)
Strategies for Metrological Extension	152	(3)
Mutual Grounding as a Growth Strategy	155	(4)
4. Theory, Measurement, and Absolute Temperature	159	(61)
Narrative: The Quest for the Theoretical Meaning of Temperature	159	(38)
Temperature, Heat, and Cold	160	(8)
Theoretical Temperature before Thermodynamics	168	(5)
William Thomson's Move to the Abstract	173	(9)
Thomson's Second Absolute Temperature	182	(4)
Semi-Concrete Models of the Carnot Cycle	186	(6)
Using Gas Thermometers to Approximate Absolute Temperature	192	(5)
Analysis: Operationalization-Making Contact between Thinking and Doing	197	(23)
The Hidden Difficulties of Reduction	197	(5)
Dealing with Abstractions	202	(3)
Operationalization and Its Validity	205	(7)
Accuracy through Iteration	212	(5)
Theoretical Temperature without Thermodynamics?	217	(3)
5. Measurement, Justification, and Scientific Progress	220	(15)
Measurement, Circularity, and Coherentism	221	(3)
Making Coherentism Progressive: Epistemic Iteration	224	(4)
Fruits of Iteration: Enrichment and Self-Correction	228	(3)
Tradition, Progress, and Pluralism	231	(2)
The Abstract and the Concrete	233	(2)
6. Complementary Science-History and Philosophy of Science as Continuation of Science by Other Means	235	(16)
The Complementary Function of History and Philosophy of Science	236	(2)
Philosophy, History, and Their Interaction in Complementary Science	238	(2)
The Character of Knowledge Generated by Complementary Science	240	(7)
Relations to Other Modes of Historical and Philosophical Study of Science	247	(2)
A Continuation of Science by Other Means	249	(2)
Glossary of Scientific, Historical, and Philosophical Terms	251	(8)
Bibliography	259	(16)
Index	275