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Histories of Scientific Observation

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Release : 2011-02
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 787/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Histories of Scientific Observation by : Lorraine Daston

Download or read book Histories of Scientific Observation written by Lorraine Daston. This book was released on 2011-02. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes bibliographical referrences and index.

Observation and Theory in Science

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Release : 2019-12-01
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 265/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Observation and Theory in Science by : Ernest Sylvain Nagel

Download or read book Observation and Theory in Science written by Ernest Sylvain Nagel. This book was released on 2019-12-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1971. The three contributions collected in this volume deal with different aspects of a single theme—the logical status of scientific theories in their relation to observation. These lectures, authored by different thinkers, treat this theme in connection with some controversies in the philosophy of science. A nonspecialist who reads these lectures should realize that the theme itself is a perennial one with an ancient lineage. It has concerned philosophers from the earliest era of philosophy on down through the centuries. A central philosophical issue at stake in the lectures is the question of whether scientific theories are testable in terms of our observations such that we can know whether some theories are true and others false. Although differing in their emphases, all three contributors seek a more plausible and nonskeptical philosophical account of the status of scientific theories in relation to observation.

Observation and Ecology

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Release : 2012-07-16
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 306/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Observation and Ecology by : Rafe Sagarin

Download or read book Observation and Ecology written by Rafe Sagarin. This book was released on 2012-07-16. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The need to understand and address large-scale environmental problems that are difficult to study in controlled environments—issues ranging from climate change to overfishing to invasive species—is driving the field of ecology in new and important directions. Observation and Ecology documents that transformation, exploring how scientists and researchers are expanding their methodological toolbox to incorporate an array of new and reexamined observational approaches—from traditional ecological knowledge to animal-borne sensors to genomic and remote-sensing technologies—to track, study, and understand current environmental problems and their implications. The authors paint a clear picture of what observational approaches to ecology are and where they fit in the context of ecological science. They consider the full range of observational abilities we have available to us and explore the challenges and practical difficulties of using a primarily observational approach to achieve scientific understanding. They also show how observations can be a bridge from ecological science to education, environmental policy, and resource management. Observations in ecology can play a key role in understanding our changing planet and the consequences of human activities on ecological processes. This book will serve as an important resource for future scientists and conservation leaders who are seeking a more holistic and applicable approach to ecological science.

Observing by Hand

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Release : 2014-01-06
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 40X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Observing by Hand by : Omar W. Nasim

Download or read book Observing by Hand written by Omar W. Nasim. This book was released on 2014-01-06. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today we are all familiar with the iconic pictures of the nebulae produced by the Hubble Space Telescope’s digital cameras. But there was a time, before the successful application of photography to the heavens, in which scientists had to rely on handmade drawings of these mysterious phenomena. Observing by Hand sheds entirely new light on the ways in which the production and reception of handdrawn images of the nebulae in the nineteenth century contributed to astronomical observation. Omar W. Nasim investigates hundreds of unpublished observing books and paper records from six nineteenth-century observers of the nebulae: Sir John Herschel; William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse; William Lassell; Ebenezer Porter Mason; Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel; and George Phillips Bond. Nasim focuses on the ways in which these observers created and employed their drawings in data-driven procedures, from their choices of artistic materials and techniques to their practices and scientific observation. He examines the ways in which the act of drawing complemented the acts of seeing and knowing, as well as the ways that making pictures was connected to the production of scientific knowledge. An impeccably researched, carefully crafted, and beautifully illustrated piece of historical work, Observing by Hand will delight historians of science, art, and the book, as well as astronomers and philosophers.

Experiment and the Making of Meaning

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Release : 2012-12-06
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 079/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Experiment and the Making of Meaning by : D.C. Gooding

Download or read book Experiment and the Making of Meaning written by D.C. Gooding. This book was released on 2012-12-06. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: . . . the topic of 'meaning' is the one topic discussed in philosophy in which there is literally nothing but 'theory' - literally nothing that can be labelled or even ridiculed as the 'common sense view'. Putnam, 'The Meaning of Meaning' This book explores some truths behind the truism that experimentation is a hallmark of scientific activity. Scientists' descriptions of nature result from two sorts of encounter: they interact with each other and with nature. Philosophy of science has, by and large, failed to give an account of either sort of interaction. Philosophers typically imagine that scientists observe, theorize and experiment in order to produce general knowledge of natural laws, knowledge which can be applied to generate new theories and technologies. This view bifurcates the scientist's world into an empirical world of pre-articulate experience and know how and another world of talk, thought and argument. Most received philosophies of science focus so exclusively on the literary world of representations that they cannot begin to address the philosophical problems arising from the interaction of these worlds: empirical access as a source of knowledge, meaning and reference, and of course, realism. This has placed the epistemological burden entirely on the predictive role of experiment because, it is argued, testing predictions is all that could show that scientists' theorizing is constrained by nature. Here a purely literary approach contributes to its own demise. The epistemological significance of experiment turns out to be a theoretical matter: cruciality depends on argument, not experiment.

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