Can that be Right?: Essays on Experiment, Evidence, and Science / Edition 1

by A. Franklin

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792354642
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	11/30/1998
Series:	Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science , #199
Edition description:	1999
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: Constructivism, Postmodernism, and Science.- Case Studies.- 1. How to Avoid the Experimenters’ Regress.- 2. The Appearance and Disappearance of the 17- Kev Neutrino.- 3. Instrumental Loyalty and the Recycling of Expertise.- 4. The Rise of the “Fifth Force”.- The Roles of Experiment.- 5. There are No Antirealists in the Laboratory.- 6. Discovery, Pursuit, and Justification.- 7. The Resolution of Discordant Results.- 8. Calibration.- 9. Laws and Experiment.- TocBack.- References.

Editorial Reviews

Franklin (U. of Colorado) challenges the postmodern or constructivist criticism of science and the post-Kuhnsian climate that dismisses science as a bit of a shady business. His nine essays, most previously published, defend science as a reasonable enterprise based on valid experimental evidence and critical discussion, which provides people with knowledge of the physical world. After establishing his own view of constructivism and postmodernism, he sets out four case studies then uses them to examine issues such as how discord between experimental results is resolved, the calibration of experimental apparatus, and its legitimate use in validating results, and how experimental results provide reasonable grounds for a belief in both the truth of physical theories and the existence of the entities the theories concern. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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