Author: Daniel Rothbart
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252056248
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 184
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Book Description
The surprising roles of instruments and experimentation in acquiring knowledge In Philosophical Instruments Daniel Rothbart argues that our tools are not just neutral intermediaries between humans and the natural world, but are devices that demand new ideas about reality. Just as a hunter's new spear can change their knowledge of the environment, so can the development of modern scientific equipment alter our view of the world. Working at the intersections of science, technology, and philosophy, Rothbart examines the revolution in knowledge brought on by recent advances in scientific instruments. Full of examples from historical and contemporary science, including electron scanning microscopes, sixteenth-century philosophical instruments, and diffraction devices used by biochemical researchers, Rothbart explores the ways in which instrumentation advances a philosophical stance about an instrument's power, an experimenter's skills, and a specimen's properties. Through a close reading of engineering of instruments, he introduces a philosophy from (rather than of) design, contending that philosophical ideas are channeled from design plans to models and from model into the use of the devices.
Author: Edward S. RITCHIE
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 74
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Book Description
Author: Daniel Rothbart
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252031369
Category : Experimental design
Languages : en
Pages : 158
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Book Description
The surprising roles of instruments and experimentation in acquiring knowledge In Philosophical Instruments Daniel Rothbart argues that our tools are not just neutral intermediaries between humans and the natural world, but are devices that demand new ideas about reality. Just as a hunter's new spear can change their knowledge of the environment, so can the development of modern scientific equipment alter our view of the world. Working at the intersections of science, technology, and philosophy, Rothbart examines the revolution in knowledge brought on by recent advances in scientific instruments. Full of examples from historical and contemporary science, including electron scanning microscopes, sixteenth-century philosophical instruments, and diffraction devices used by biochemical researchers, Rothbart explores the ways in which instrumentation advances a philosophical stance about an instrument's power, an experimenter's skills, and a specimen's properties. Through a close reading of engineering of instruments, he introduces a philosophy from (rather than of) design, contending that philosophical ideas are channeled from design plans to models and from model into the use of the devices.
Author: W. and S. Jones (Firm)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 16
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Book Description
Author: James Glaisher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Exhibition
Languages : en
Pages : 84
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Book Description
Author: W. and S. Jones (Firm)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Optical instruments
Languages : en
Pages : 18
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Book Description
Author: W. and S. Jones (Firm)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Optical instruments
Languages : en
Pages : 18
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Book Description
Author: David Brewster
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Optical instruments
Languages : en
Pages : 478
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Book Description
Author: David Brewster
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Light
Languages : en
Pages : 482
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Book Description
"First edition of David Brewster's first major scientific publication, detailing his early experiments in optics. In 1813, Brewster was already fellow of the Royal Society and editor of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia. The present work was the culmination of twelve years of experiments. In it, he reports his findings about the refractive and dispersive powers of early two hundred substances he made in a quest for the improvement of achromatic telescopes. Though the years immediately following this book's publication led him to revise some of his theories, these studies are the basis of much of the work for which he is celebrated, including his discoveries about the polarization of light and absorption spectra, and his invention of teh kaleidoscope and development of the stereoscope."--Antiquarian bookseller's description.
Author: Davis Baird
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520928202
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 297
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Book Description
Western philosophers have traditionally concentrated on theory as the means for expressing knowledge about a variety of phenomena. This absorbing book challenges this fundamental notion by showing how objects themselves, specifically scientific instruments, can express knowledge. As he considers numerous intriguing examples, Davis Baird gives us the tools to "read" the material products of science and technology and to understand their place in culture. Making a provocative and original challenge to our conception of knowledge itself, Thing Knowledge demands that we take a new look at theories of science and technology, knowledge, progress, and change. Baird considers a wide range of instruments, including Faraday's first electric motor, eighteenth-century mechanical models of the solar system, the cyclotron, various instruments developed by analytical chemists between 1930 and 1960, spectrometers, and more.
