Davis Baird

Nanotechnology challenges : implications for philosophy, ethics and society

Philosophical Issues: The Drexler Challenge The Metaphysics of Nanotechnology The Truth of Nanoscopic Images Dealing with Complexity Ethical Issues: Social and Environmental Ethics of Nanotechnology Managing the Risks of Nanotechnology Societal Issues: Public Discourses on the Future Visions and Public Reactions to Nanotechnology.

Analytical chemistry and the ‘big’ scientific instrumentation revolution

Summary By a close examination of changes in analytical chemistry between the years 1920 and 1950, I document the case that natural science has undergone and continues to undergo a major revolution. The central feature of this transformation is the rise in importance of scientific instrumentation. Prior to 1920, analytical chemists determined the chemical constitution of some unknown by treating it with a series of known compounds and observing the kind of reactions it underwent. After 1950, analytical chemists determined the chemical constitution of an unknown by using a variety of instruments which allow one to discriminate chemicals in terms of their physical properties. This transformation involved changes in the practice of analytical chemistry. It involved the development of a new family of scientific instrument-making companies, and a new level of capital expenditure necessary to do analytical chemistry. It involved the development of new means to disseminate information about scientific instrument...

Opportunities in the 'post-academic' world

Addressing the ethical, legal and social implications of nanotechnology will help to reverse the fragmentation of academic fields into multiple subdisciplines, end the artificial separation between pure and applied research, and bridge the gap between science and the society it serves, as well as helping to avoid a possible public backlash.

Conceptual issues of research methodology for the behavioural, life and social sciences

Summary. Research methodology (RM) must be clearly separated from substantive fields, such as medicine, psychology, education, sociology and economics, and, on the other side, from the philosophy of science and statistics. RM starts from substantive research problems and uses statistical knowledge, but it goes its own way in developing and applying new methods and concepts, all of which are relevant to RM consultants. Examples of topics are given that are typical for RM research and consultancy. Finally, it is argued that RM needs its own research programme and curriculum for RM consultants.

Facts-Well-Put

In this paper we elucidate a particular type of instrument. Striking-phenomenon instruments assume their striking profile against the shifting backdrop of theoretical uncertainties. While technologically stable, the phenomena produced by these instruments are linguistically fuzzy, subject to a variety of conceptual representations. But in virtue of their technological stability alone, they can provide a foundation for further technological as well as conceptual development. Sometimes, as in the case of the pulse glass, the phenomenon is taken to confirm conflicting theoretical views; sometimes, as in the case of the Lichtenberg-figures, it holds out the false promise of crucial theoretical importance; sometimes, as in the case of the airpump in the 18th century, it emphatically short-circuits theory and human ingenuity, giving a voice to nature herself; and sometimes, finally, as in the case of the quincunx, the phenomenon stands in for theoretical accounts. We propose and develop the salient features of these instruments demonstrating their importance to our understanding of science.

Exploratory Factor Analysis, Instruments and the Logic of Discovery

Philosophers distinguish the logic of discovery from the logic of justification. The logic of justification usually is understood as a set of canons of inference for testing-either to confirm or refute-an explicit hypothesis. In contrast, the logic of discovery, usually is understood as a set of canons of inference for generating an hypothesis from data. From early in this century until recently it was common for philosophers to deny the possibility of a logic of discovery; there could be psychologically useful aids to promote discoveries, but these methods, and the hypotheses they generated could not be understood as privileged in any way. According to Larry Laudan, prior to the turn of the century, the circumstances through which an hypothesis was discovered provided the primary reason for its acceptance. The logic of discovery was a logic of epistemic warrant. Laudan worries that the recently revived interest in the logic of discovery cannot serve this same purpose:

Philosophy Of Chemistry

Chapter 1: Introduction Eric Scerri and Lee McIntyre.- Chapter 2: Reduction for a Dappled World: Connecting Chemical and Physical Theories Hinne Hettema.- Chapter 3: The Ontological Autonomy of the Chemical World: Facing the Criticisms Olimpia Lombardi.- Chapter 4: A Novel Approach to Emergence in Chemistry Alexandru Manafu.- Chapter 5: The Methodological Pluralism of Chemistry and Its Philosophical Implications Joachim Schummer.- Chapter 6: Pragmatism and the Philosophy of Chemistry Joseph Earley.- Chapter 7: One Substance Or More? Paul Needham.- Chapter 8: Mereological Principles and Chemical Affordances Rom Harre.- Chapter 9: Metaphor in Chemistry: An Examination of Chemical Metaphor Farzad Mahootian.- Chapter 10: From Corpuscles To Elements: Chemical Ontologies From van Helmont To Lavoisier Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino.- Chapter 11: Mendeleev and the Rare-Earth Crisis Pieter Thyssen and Koen Binnemans.- Chapter 12: Radicals, Reactions, Realism Klaus Ruthenberg.- Chapter 13: Orbital Symmetry, Idealization, and the Kairetic Account of Scientific Explanation Grant Fisher.- Chapter 14: Investigating the Meaning of the Ceteris Paribus Clause in Chemistry Jean-Pierre Llored.

Tests of Significance Violate the Rule of Implication

The rule of implication, (+) If hypothesis H implies hypothesis I, then evidence sufficient to warrant the rejection of I, in turn warrants the rejection of H, is a very plausible principle of inductive inference. It is shown that significance tests violate this principle. Two ways to account for this violation are considered; neither account is fully satisfactory. First, a distinction might be made between the absolute degree of confirmation and the change in the degree of confirmation due to a specific result. Measures of the change in the degree of confirmation need not obey the rule of implication. Unfortunately, it is difficult to interpret significance tests as a measure of the change in degree of confirmation of an hypothesis. Second, it might be observed that hypotheses are sought that are informative as well as faithful to observations. Amalgamating a measure of informativeness with a measure of faithfulness can result in violations of the rule of implication. Unfortunately, it is unclear why significance tests amalgamating measures of informativeness and faithfulness are desirable.

Editor's Introduction to Peter Galison's Image and Logic and this POS Collection of Critical Essays

Many critics of Peter Galison’s Image and Logic have made light of the fact that this is a heavy book, heavy not in the sense of portentous or dense, but heavy as in rich and voluminous. This heaviness places a considerable burden on its reader who is systematically overtaxed by it. Though it keeps its historical focus on the study of elementary particles from the use of cloud chambers to the development of electronic images in the 1980s, its more than 800 pages make for a multi-faceted book that draws on anthropology, linguistics, philosophy of science and experiment, the sociology of scientiac knowledge, and histories of science, technology, politics, economics, and architecture. It thus creates and inhabits what Galison calls a trading zone, a place to meet and interact for members of the various academic subcultures that study science. People enter these trading zones with interests and interpretations of their own, seeking to and something that will suit their purposes. Almost inadvertently, however, their interactions in the trading zone stabilize practice and their coordinated action leads to the coordination of belief. The following pages show members of diverse subcultures entering the Image and Logic-trading zone and returning from it with goods, booty, or gifts of their own.1 If Galison’s interest in scientiac images invites the art historian into the study of science, art theorist and historian James Elkins returns the favor by taking up Galison’s emphasis on “logic” and the ideal