Observation and Experiment in the Natural and Social Sciences

Observation and Experiment in the Natural and Social Sciences PDF

Author: Maria Carla Galavotti

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-04-18

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0306481235

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This volume is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the distinction between a ‘context of justification’ and a ‘context of discovery’. It is meant for researchers and advanced students in philosophy of science, and for natural and social scientists interested in foundational topics. Spanning a wide range of disciplines, it combines the viewpoint of philosophers and scientists and casts a new interdisciplinary perspective on the problem of observation and experimentation.

Social Science Research

Social Science Research PDF

Author: Anol Bhattacherjee

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9781475146127

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This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.

The Uses of Experiment

The Uses of Experiment PDF

Author: David Gooding

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1989-05-18

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 9780521337687

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Renowned scholars in history, sociology, philosophy and anthropology consider seventeenth and twentieth century weapon testing, particle physics, biology and other topics in an account of important and often famous experiments.

Going Amiss in Experimental Research

Going Amiss in Experimental Research PDF

Author: Giora Hon

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-12-04

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1402088930

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Like any goal-oriented procedure, experiment is subject to many kinds of failures. These failures have a variety of features, depending on the particulars of their sources. For the experimenter these pitfalls should be avoided and their effects minimized. For the historian-philosopher of science and the science educator, on the other hand, they are instructive starting points for reflecting on science in general and scientific method and practice in particular. Often more is learned from failure than from confirmation and successful application. The identification of error, its source, its context, and its treatment shed light on both practices and epistemic claims. This book shows that it is fruitful to bring to light forgotten and lost failures, subject them to analysis and learn from their moral. The study of failures, errors, pitfalls and mistakes helps us understand the way knowledge is pursued and indeed generated. The book presents both historical accounts and philosophical analyses of failures in experimental practice. It covers topics such as "error as an object of study", "learning from error", "concepts and dead ends", "instrumental artifacts", and "surprise and puzzlement". This book will be of interest to historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science as well as to practicing scientists and science educators.

Experiment and the Making of Meaning

Experiment and the Making of Meaning PDF

Author: D.C. Gooding

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9400907079

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. . . 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.

Laboratory Experiments in the Social Sciences

Laboratory Experiments in the Social Sciences PDF

Author: Murray Webster

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2007-07-03

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 9780080546148

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Laboratory Experiments in the Social Sciences is the only book providing core information for researchers about the ways and means to conduct experiments. Its comprehensive regard for laboratory experiments encompasses “how-to explanations, investigations of philosophies and ethics, explorations of experiments in specific social science disciplines, and summaries of both the history and future of social science laboratories. No other book offers such a direct avenue to enlarging our knowledge in the social sciences. This collection of original chapters combines instructions and advice about the design of laboratory experiments in the social sciences with the array of other issues. While there are books on experimental design and chapters in more general methods books on design, theory, and ethical issues, no other book attempts to discuss the fundamental ideas of the philosophy of science or lays out the methods comprehensively or in such detail. Experimentation has recently prospered because of increasing interest in cross-disciplinary syntheses, and this book of advice, guidelines, and observations underline its potential and increasing importance. · Provides a comprehensive summary of issues in social science experimentation, from ethics to design, management, and financing · Offers "how-to" explanations of the problems and challenges faced by everyone involved in social science experiments · Pays attention to both practical problems and to theoretical and philosophical arguments · Defines commonalities and distinctions within and among experimental situations across the social sciences

Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science

Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science PDF

Author: Lorenzo Magnani

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-05-22

Total Pages: 1180

ISBN-13: 3319305263

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This handbook offers the first comprehensive reference guide to the interdisciplinary field of model-based reasoning. It highlights the role of models as mediators between theory and experimentation, and as educational devices, as well as their relevance in testing hypotheses and explanatory functions. The Springer Handbook merges philosophical, cognitive and epistemological perspectives on models with the more practical needs related to the application of this tool across various disciplines and practices. The result is a unique, reliable source of information that guides readers toward an understanding of different aspects of model-based science, such as the theoretical and cognitive nature of models, as well as their practical and logical aspects. The inferential role of models in hypothetical reasoning, abduction and creativity once they are constructed, adopted, and manipulated for different scientific and technological purposes is also discussed. Written by a group of internationally renowned experts in philosophy, the history of science, general epistemology, mathematics, cognitive and computer science, physics and life sciences, as well as engineering, architecture, and economics, this Handbook uses numerous diagrams, schemes and other visual representations to promote a better understanding of the concepts. This also makes it highly accessible to an audience of scholars and students with different scientific backgrounds. All in all, the Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science represents the definitive application-oriented reference guide to the interdisciplinary field of model-based reasoning.

New Methodological Perspectives on Observation and Experimentation in Science

New Methodological Perspectives on Observation and Experimentation in Science PDF

Author: Wenceslao J. González

Publisher: Netbiblo

Published: 2010-12-29

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 8497455304

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Observation and experimentation are central topics of philosophy and methodology of science. The empirical sciences have commonly been associated to observational and experimental processes, because they have been considered crucial for testing the contents of these. Thus, observation and experimentation have received attention from different angles, and they have been historically relevant in the advancement of science. Their philosophical-methodological analysis includes some key aspects those related to axiological, epistemological and methodological issues. New Methodological Perspectives on Observation and Experimentation in Science deals with a classic topic that is seen from new angles. Its nine chapters seek “non-traditional” aspects, trying to extend the boundaries of this philosophical-methodological theme. They are presented in five sections: 1) A Philosophical-Methodological Context; 2) Experience and Scientific Observations; 3) Empirical Support and Experiments in Science; 4) Changes in the Framework on Observation and Experimentation; and 5) Enlarging the Philosophical Scope: Law and Ecology. Wenceslao J. Gonzalez is Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science (University of A Coruña). He is a Full Member of the International Academy for Philosophy of Sciences (AIPS), Visiting fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Science (University of Pittsburgh) and a Team Leader of the European Science Foundation program entitled “The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective.” He has been named a Distinguished Researcher by the Main National University of San Marcos in Lima (Peru). He has been a visiting researcher at the Universities of St. Andrews, Münster and London (LSE). He has given lectures at the Universities of Pittsburgh, Stanford, Quebec and Helsinki. The conferences in which he has participated include those organized by the Universities of Uppsala, New South Wales, Bologna, Canterbury (NZ), and Beijing. He has edited 26 volumes on philosophy and methodology of science.

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