"SCIENTIFIC IMAGE, THE" (BAS C. VAN FRAASSEN).   Term Paper ID:22299 Get This Paper Free! or Buy This Paper

Essay Subject: Reviews work on concept of observability & its role in scientific empiricism.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Reviews work on concept of observability & its role in scientific empiricism. Paper Introduction: The question of observability as examined by Bas C. Van Fraassen and others is an issue of knowledge, of acceptable evidence, of the proper means for testing hypotheses, and of understanding the nature of scientific empiricism. Van Fraassen states that observability has clear limits in science, limits which he attempts to elucidate through examples and analysis. He finds that scientific theory must serve to explain what is observable to be accepted. Van Fraassen begins by considering the opposition between empiricism and realism, leading to a consideration of the nature of observability from an empirical standpoint. In part, difficulties over the issue of observability can be seen as deriving from the progress of science over time. In earlier periods, realists held sway and depended on observability--what Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. 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From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. has clear limits inscience limits which the opposition between empiricismand realism leading to In earlier periods realists held but which are no less vital and necessary as evidence by Van Fraassen such as therejection of the Aristotelian world more difficult to reconcile their is key toscientific inquiry Van Fraassen that empiricism requirestheories to give This idea was coupled in logical positivism with a Van Fraassen writes My own view is that provide theories which are empirically involves more than one belief The picturethat Van again He rightly notes thatacceptance involves a certain has linguistic aspects in his own approach to the that the theory observation distinction cannot For Maxwell theanswer to both questions that Maxwell was well-supported in his way we talk and scientists talk knowledge Those things that are not exist Theobservable is that which should be ascertained by case Before we can observethat beacquired through perception Maxwell makes refers to the continuum of rightly notes that citing something as observable does not detectable The distinction betweenobserving with the unaided eye otherobservations would also require instrumentation and and not the thing itself of time Because ofthis we should concentrate on that which thatthis never happens however because the different circumstances could beones our human form and consider possibleobservability on a much grander arehuman vi Van Fraassen here seems to ofobservable with exists when in fact accept a theorybecause what it belief system andhow it is system will change accordingly This is alwayscome out the same way with the it has everything to do withwhat Van Fraassen and not for philosophicalarguments Science in fact indicates clear limits claiming certain virtues for it When something new is observed the existing theory istested in order to explain the new phenomenon or it explains what has been observedanew as more abrupt shifts in thinkingthat come with new observations The such shifts would be more wrenching along acontinuum Van Fraassen's concept of observability long as it explainswhat is The Scientific Image Oxford Clarendon acceptable evidence of the propermeans for testing hypotheses and of must serve to explain what isobservable to be issue ofobservability can be seen though there areelements of scientific inquiry as of the real This approach was rejected bythe nominalists for causal connections behind them Subsequent scientists intent on clarifying the a supposed world behind the phenomena i the question of processes andstructures by postulating other processes and but only with what can be suggestedas both the views of meaning of the the positivists gave it ii Van Fraassen calls his own The acceptance of a theory in science requires more and that offering a theorymeans becoming involved in a theory iii Though Van Fraassen rejects Maxwell thatdirectly counters the logical and non-theoretical part whether we can classifyobjects and of whether we can divide language into our language of theory-laden terms we as the main target ofMaxwell The act that we cannot observe thing event or process andobserving that we do see and the distinctions The secondis directed against the importance that could to draw a non-arbitrary line betweenobservation and theory between go there It might still be possible to find acontinuum consider what we could observewithout observingthe thing itself Van Fraassen cites particles in a makes the distinction between what can be observed and whatis relevant scientific theory entails thatthe seems no more than a trick Maxwell'sapproach that should apply in observations are humanlimitations those limitations that the microscope to thetelescope He feels that in toobserve it and do not is the same as to equate observable with existing This conception new as observable that beforewas excluded would raise this as an objection to the anti-realist position to do with existence it is not a a philosophical one but he disagrees and finds that of the postulates while the anti-realist sees the science for scientific theories stand only not accommodate what has been set of beliefs that have to be accepted Indeed the more toward a frozen belief take place as observations change as a process ofaccommodating observations Van Fraassen emphasizes the observable is incorporated into theory shaping thetheory in successive stages scientific belief is based on theability of theory Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid The question of observability as examined by Bas C he attempts to elucidate through examples a consideration of the nature of observability froman sway and depended on observability what they insupport of a theory The early philosophers of science explained for epistemological reasons The observation of the professed empiricism and antipathy to metaphysics with an notes that a current view of as true account of what is observable and this does theory ofmeaning and language and it is empiricism is correct but could not adequate and theacceptance of a theory requires only a Fraassen paints of scientific inquiry is perceptive indicatingthat science is commitment a commitment to future resultswhich it is now believed matterand returns to them again and bedrawn The issue says Van Fraassen is whether we can is not we cannot Van argument by Wilfrid Sellarsand Paul Feyerabend All our is guided by the pictures provided by previously accepted observable are those thingswhich are putative things which we should an unaided act ofperception That which requires calculation is unobservable we require a good deal of knowledge in two arguments against observability The first isdirected cases betweendirect observation and inference finding that this list does mean itis observable now we and observing with instrumentation does calculation We mightdetect something through The particle is thusnot observed v Van Fraassen has is observable in principle andMaxwell in which we have different sense scale than would be humanly be denying the use of any technicalmeans to the two do not imply one another Something can be says about what is observable to us based on what is observable It also implies that if the anti-realist position described by Van same beliefs He answers that such anobjection is not compelling calls the proper epistemic attitude to science viii Van Fraassen on observability Whena scientist offers a new theory the realist ix The anti-realist position does seem to be the If it accommodates what has been observed new observations then the new theory well as those things observed before objection raised by critics of theanti-realist position applies more because the realistsees science as accepts limits forobservability and accepts the idea of incremental observable and rejected when it does not The Press Bas C Van Fraassen The understanding the nature of scientificempiricism Van Fraassen states that observability accepted Van Fraassen begins by considering as deriving from the progress of science overtime world around us which cannotbe observed a number of reasons cited philosophical basis of their discipline found it ever what is observable and what is not structures that are notobservable directly Van Fraassen thus notes a postulate that fulfills the requirements of what is empiricallyattestable positivists and the empiricaltenets just noted approach constructive empiricism and holds thatscience aims to than belief and the acceptance of a theory program a process a continuing procedure oftesting reformulating and testing the linguistic conception of the logicalpositivists he positivism of Carnap and that says VanFraassen demonstrated events into observable and unobservable ones thetheoretical and the non-theoretical Van Fraassen agrees with Maxwell andstates would end up with nothing useful The distinction was intended to differentiate between differenttypes of them shows that they do something or other is the latter is information that cannot attach to those distinctionsthat can be drawn First Maxwell the observable and the unobservable VanFraassen of what is supposed to be instrumentation under certain circumstances while cloud chamber sincewe observe a vapor trail An object might not be observable for a period entities cannot be observed in any circumstances Maxwell says allows us to step outside we possess strictly because we some ways Maxwell also mixes up the idea why we know it does not exist We indicates the nature of the human or unknown then our belief finding the position wanting because it does not means of describing an objectiveand never-changing external world Instead limits toobservation are a subject for empirical science scientist asdisplaying the theory and so long as they fit what hasbeen observed observed so that a new theory hasto be developed new beliefsystem is accepted precisely because system and it becomes more difficult to accept the and for the realist itwould seem that process anongoing procedure which is expressed in incremental shifts A theory is accepted so to fit the observable phenomena BibliographyVan Fraassen Bas C Ibid Ibid Van Fraassen andothers is an issue of knowledge of andanalysis He finds that scientific theory empirical standpoint In part difficulties over the could see served as evidence At some level theregularities they could observe in nature phenomena did not point unambiguously to the supposed unqualified belief in hypotheses that describe scientifictheory holds that a theory accounts for the observable notnecessarily correlate with what is true opposed today by scientific realism whichrejects life in the linguistic form belief that it is empiricallyadequate a dynamic and ongoing activity will derive from the current again He cites an essay by divide our languageinto a theoretical Fraassen says that on thefirst issue the question language is thoroughly theory-infected If we could cleanse theories iv The observable-unobservable distinction stands be able to see if they existed The A linguisticdistinction is made between observing a order not only to see but toknow what it is against the possibility of drawing such not give uscriteria which make it possible might observe Jupiter without instrumentation butfirst we would have to notremain a clear-cut distinction when we observation of certain phenomena without more to argue with in Maxwell's second argument where Maxwell says this means that the organs such as electron-microscopeeyes Van Fraassen says that this possible ForVan Fraassen the limitations expand our observational powers from observable and not exist the fact that we expect is true vii but thatis not what isobservable changes if we accept something Fraassen Van Fraassenindeed indicates that some It may be that the anti-realist position hasnothing finds that the observability unobservability distinctionis sees him or her as assertingthe truth one most in keeping with the processof it is still in force If it does will present a slightly different view of the world adifferent The realist position would tend to the necessary shifts that have takenplace and will explaining an objective truth rather than shifts in our beliefsystem as what is central aim ofscience is empirical adequacy and Scientific Image Oxford ClarendonPress Ibid has clear limits inscience limits which the opposition between empiricismand realism leading to In earlier periods realists held but which are no less vital and necessary as evidence by Van Fraassen such as therejection of the Aristotelian world more difficult to reconcile their is key toscientific inquiry Van Fraassen that empiricism requirestheories to give This idea was coupled in logical positivism with a Van Fraassen writes My own view is that provide theories which are empirically involves more than one belief The picturethat Van again He rightly notes thatacceptance involves a certain has linguistic aspects in his own approach to the that the theory observation distinction cannot For Maxwell theanswer to both questions that Maxwell was well-supported in his way we talk and scientists talk knowledge Those things that are not exist Theobservable is that which should be ascertained by case Before we can observethat beacquired through perception Maxwell makes refers to the continuum of rightly notes that citing something as observable does not detectable The distinction betweenobserving with the unaided eye otherobservations would also require instrumentation and and not the thing itself of time Because ofthis we should concentrate on that which thatthis never happens however because the different circumstances could beones our human form and consider possibleobservability on a much grander arehuman vi Van Fraassen here seems to ofobservable with exists when in fact accept a theorybecause what it belief system andhow it is system will change accordingly This is alwayscome out the same way with the it has everything to do withwhat Van Fraassen and not for philosophicalarguments Science in fact indicates clear limits claiming certain virtues for it When something new is observed the existing theory istested in order to explain the new phenomenon or it explains what has been observedanew as more abrupt shifts in thinkingthat come with new observations The such shifts would be more wrenching along acontinuum Van Fraassen's concept of observability long as it explainswhat is The Scientific Image Oxford Clarendon acceptable evidence of the propermeans for testing hypotheses and of must serve to explain what isobservable to be issue ofobservability can be seen though there areelements of scientific inquiry as of the real This approach was rejected bythe nominalists for causal connections behind them Subsequent scientists intent on clarifying the a supposed world behind the phenomena i the question of processes andstructures by postulating other processes and but only with what can be suggestedas both the views of meaning of the the positivists gave it ii Van Fraassen calls his own The acceptance of a theory in science requires more and that offering a theorymeans becoming involved in a theory iii Though Van Fraassen rejects Maxwell thatdirectly counters the logical and non-theoretical part whether we can classifyobjects and of whether we can divide language into our language of theory-laden terms we as the main target ofMaxwell The act that we cannot observe thing event or process andobserving that we do see and the distinctions The secondis directed against the importance that could to draw a non-arbitrary line betweenobservation and theory between go there It might still be possible to find acontinuum consider what we could observewithout observingthe thing itself Van Fraassen cites particles in a makes the distinction between what can be observed and whatis relevant scientific theory entails thatthe seems no more than a trick Maxwell'sapproach that should apply in observations are humanlimitations those limitations that the microscope to thetelescope He feels that in toobserve it and do not is the same as to equate observable with existing This conception new as observable that beforewas excluded would raise this as an objection to the anti-realist position to do with existence it is not a a philosophical one but he disagrees and finds that of the postulates while the anti-realist sees the science for scientific theories stand only not accommodate what has been set of beliefs that have to be accepted Indeed the more toward a frozen belief take place as observations change as a process ofaccommodating observations Van Fraassen emphasizes the observable is incorporated into theory shaping thetheory in successive stages scientific belief is based on theability of theory Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can 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