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Seeing Things: The Philosophy of Reliable Observation

Online ISBN:
9780199367627
Print ISBN:
9780199303281
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Seeing Things: The Philosophy of Reliable Observation

Robert Hudson
Robert Hudson

Professor of Philosophy

University of Saskatchewan
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Published:
26 September 2013
Online ISBN:
9780199367627
Print ISBN:
9780199303281
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

The main goal of Seeing Things is to criticize a common way of arguing called ‘robustness reasoning’. With robustness reasoning, one claims that an observation report is more likely to be true (or, is better justified) if this report is produced by multiple, independent sources (such as by multiple scientists, or by means of multiple experimental strategies). In the book it is argued that robustness reasoning lacks the special, informative value it is often claimed to have. This result is defended by both exposing key flaws in various popular, philosophical defences of robustness reasoning, as well as by recounting five episodes in the history of science where robustness reasoning was not used. These episodes include research into experimental microbiology, dark matter (and its possible constitution as WIMPs), Jean Perrin’s proof of the atomic nature of matter, and the accelerative expansion of the universe (dark energy). In addition to criticizing robustness reasoning, the book relates its analysis of the failure of robustness reasoning to an assessment of a highly popular approach to scientific realism called ‘(theoretical) preservationism’, arguing that those who defend this approach to realism commit similar errors to those that advocate robustness reasoning. In turn, a new form of realism is formulated and defended, called ‘methodological preservationism’, that recognizes the fundamental value to scientists (and the rest of us) of naked eye observation along with closely related technological and reason-based enhancements of such observation.

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