The Reality of the Unobservable: Observability, Unobservability and Their Impact on the Issue of Scientific RealismEvandro Agazzi, M. Pauri Observability and Scientific Realism It is commonly thought that the birth of modern natural science was made possible by an intellectual shift from a mainly abstract and specuJative conception of the world to a carefully elaborated image based on observations. There is some grain of truth in this claim, but this grain depends very much on what one takes observation to be. In the philosophy of science of our century, observation has been practically equated with sense perception. This is understandable if we think of the attitude of radical empiricism that inspired Ernst Mach and the philosophers of the Vienna Circle, who powerfully influenced our century's philosophy of science. However, this was not the atti tude of the f ounders of modern science: Galileo, f or example, expressed in a f amous passage of the Assayer the conviction that perceptual features of the world are merely subjective, and are produced in the 'anima!' by the motion and impacts of unobservable particles that are endowed uniquely with mathematically expressible properties, and which are therefore the real features of the world. Moreover, on other occasions, when defending the Copernican theory, he explicitly remarked that in admitting that the Sun is static and the Earth turns on its own axis, 'reason must do violence to the sense' , and that it is thanks to this violence that one can know the tme constitution of the universe. |
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The Reality of the Unobservable: Observability, Unobservability and Their ... Evandro Agazzi,M. Pauri No preview available - 2014 |
The Reality of the Unobservable: Observability, Unobservability and Their ... E. Agazzi,M. Pauri No preview available - 2010 |
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abductive abductive reasoning according Agazzi apparatus aspects atoms background beliefs big bang black holes Boltzmann causal claim classical classical physics cognitive concept correlations corresponding cosmology direct observation distinction dynamic Einstein electron empirical empiricism epistemic epistemological equations example existence experience experimental external fact formalism gravitational Hilbert space hypothesis idea input instrument interaction interpretation of quantum ISBN Kant kind knowledge language layer linguistic logical macroscopic mathematical means measurement metaphysical nature neutrino notion objective entities ontological particle particle physics perceived perception phenomena Philosophy of Science physicists Planck Poincaré possible postulate probability problem properties psychokinesis quantum mechanics quantum theory quark model quarks question R.S. Cohen random reality reason refer relation relativity representations result scientific realism sense Shapere's space spacetime spatial specific structure Synthese Library technological theoretical truth universe unobservable vector wave function wave function collapse