Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science

by Ian Hacking

• ISBN13: 9780521282468
• ISBN10: 0521282462
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1983-11-25
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is a lively and clearly written introduction to the philosophy of natural science, organized around the central theme of scientific realism. It has two parts. 'Representing' deals with the different philosophical accounts of scientific objectivity and the reality of scientific entities. The views of Kuhn, Feyerabend, Lakatos, Putnam, van Fraassen, and others, are all considered. 'Intervening' presents the first sustained treatment of experimental science for many years and uses it to give a new direction to debates about realism. Hacking illustrates how experimentation often has a life independent of theory. He argues that although the philosophical problems of scientific realism can not be resolved when put in terms of theory alone, a sound philosophy of experiment provides compelling grounds for a realistic attitude. A great many scientific examples are described in both parts of the book, which also includes lucid expositions of recent high energy physics and a remarkable chapter on the microscope in cell biology.

Table of Contents

Analytical table of contents

Preface

Introduction: rationality

Part I. Representing: 1. What is scientific realism?

2. Building and causing

3. Positivism

4. Pragmatism

5. Incommensurability

6. Reference

7. Internal realism

8. A surrogate for truth

Part II. Intervening: 9. Experiment

10. Observation

11. Microscopes

12. Speculation, calculation, models, approximations

13. The creation of phenomena

14. Measurement

15. Baconian topics

16. Experimentation and scientific realism

Further reading

Index.