β Scribed by Allan Franklin (auth.)
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
In this collection of essays Allan Franklin defends the view that science provides us with knowledge about the world which is based on experimental evidence and on reasoned and critical discussion. In short, he argues that science is a reasonable enterprise.
He begins with detailed studies of four episodes from the history of modern physics: (1) the early attempts to detect gravity waves, (2) how the physics community decided that a proposed new elementary particle, 17-keV neutrino, did not exist, (3) a sequence of experiments on K meson decay, and (4) the origins of the Fifth Force hypothesis, a proposed modification of Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation.
The case studies are then used to examine issues such as how discord between experimental results is resolved, calibration of an experimental apparatus and its legitimate use in validating an experimental result, and how experimental results provide reasonable grounds for belief in both the truth of physical theories and in the existence of the entities involved in those theories.
This book is a challenge to the critics of science, both postmodern and constructivist, to provide convincing alternative explanations of the episodes and issues discussed. It should be of interest to philosophers, historians, and sociologists of science, and to scientists themselves.
Front Matter....Pages i-ix
Introduction: Constructivism, Postmodernism, and Science....Pages 1-11
How to Avoid the Experimentersβ Regress....Pages 13-38
The Appearance and Disappearance of the 17-Kev Neutrino....Pages 39-96
Instrumental Loyalty and the Recycling of Expertise....Pages 97-131
The Rise of the βFifth Forceβ....Pages 133-148
There are no Antirealists in the Laboratory....Pages 149-162
Discovery, Pursuit, and Justification....Pages 163-182
The Resolution of Discordant Results....Pages 183-235
Calibration....Pages 237-272
Laws and Experiment....Pages 273-281
Back Matter....Pages 283-317
Philosophy of Science;History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics;History;Interdisciplinary Studies
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written by a Duhem-admiring experimentalist
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