Inventing temperature : measurement and scientific progress / Hasok Chang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chang, Hasok, author.

Series:

Oxford studies in philosophy of science.

Oxford studies in philosophy of science

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Temperature measurements--History.

Temperature measurements.

Thermometers--History.

Thermometers.

Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge.

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 286 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Measurement and scientific progress

Place of Publication:

Oxford University Press 2004

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The author presents simple yet challenging epistemic and technical questions about temperature-measuring instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. He also shows that many items of knowledge we take for granted are in fact spectacular achievements obtained after a great deal of innovative thinking.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Note on Translation""; ""Chronology""; ""Introduction""; ""1. Keeping the Fixed Points Fixed""; ""Narrative: What to Do When Water Refuses to Boil at the Boiling Point""; ""Blood, Butter, and Deep Cellars: The Necessity and Scarcity of Fixed Points""; ""The Vexatious Variations of the Boiling Point""; ""Superheating and the Mirage of True Ebullition""; ""Escape from Superheating""; ""The Understanding of Boiling""; ""A Dusty Epilogue""; ""Analysis: The Meaning and Achievement of Fixity""; ""The Validation of Standards: Justificatory Descent""

""The Iterative Improvement of Standards: Constructive Ascent""""The Defense of Fixity: Plausible Denial and Serendipitous Robustness""; ""The Case of the Freezing Point""; ""2. Spirit, Air, and Quicksilver""; ""Narrative: The Search for the "Real" Scale of Temperature""; ""The Problem of Nomic Measurement""; ""De Luc and the Method of Mixtures""; ""Caloric Theories against the Method of Mixtures""; ""The Calorist Mirage of Gaseous Linearity""; ""Regnault: Austerity and Comparability""; ""The Verdict: Air over Mercury""

""Analysis: Measurement and Theory in the Context of Empiricism""""The Achievement of Observability, by Stages""; ""Comparability and the Ontological Principle of Single Value""; ""Minimalism against Duhemian Holism""; ""Regnault and Post-Laplacian Empiricism""; ""3. To Go Beyond""; ""Narrative: Measuring Temperature When Thermometers Melt and Freeze""; ""Can Mercury Be Frozen?""; ""Can Mercury Tell Us Its Own Freezing Point?""; ""Consolidating the Freezing Point of Mercury""; ""Adventures of a Scientific Potter""; ""It Is Temperature, but Not As We Know It?""; ""Ganging Up on Wedgwood""

""Analysis: The Extension of Concepts beyond Their Birth Domains""""Travel Advisory from Percy Bridgman""; ""Beyond Bridgman: Meaning, Definition, and Validity""; ""Strategies for Metrological Extension""; ""Mutual Grounding as a Growth Strategy""; ""4. Theory, Measurement, and Absolute Temperature""; ""Narrative: The Quest for the Theoretical Meaning of Temperature""; ""Temperature, Heat, and Cold""; ""Theoretical Temperature before Thermodynamics""; ""William Thomson's Move to the Abstract""; ""Thomson's Second Absolute Temperature""; ""Semi-Concrete Models of the Carnot Cycle""

""Using Gas Thermometers to Approximate Absolute Temperature""""Analysis: Operationalization "Making Contact between Thinking and Doing""; ""The Hidden Difficulties of Reduction""; ""Dealing with Abstractions""; ""Operationalization and Its Validity""; ""Accuracy through Iteration""; ""Theoretical Temperature without Thermodynamics?""; ""5. Measurement, Justification, and Scientific Progress""; ""Measurement, Circularity, and Coherentism""; ""Making Coherentism Progressive: Epistemic Iteration""; ""Fruits of Iteration: Enrichment and Self-Correction""; ""Tradition, Progress, and Pluralism""

""The Abstract and the Concrete""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references ( p. 259-274 ) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-988369-6

0-19-533738-7

1-280-55915-2

9786610559152

1-4237-5644-4

0-19-803824-0

1-60256-481-7

OCLC:

191826715