The DOI matches its Crossref record; 8 of the 8 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Concept of Observation in Science and Philosophy
Abstract
Through a study of a sophisticated contemporary scientific experiment, it is shown how and why use of the term ‘observation’ in reference to that experiment departs from ordinary and philosophical usages which associate observation epistemically with perception. The role of “background information” is examined, and general conclusions are arrived at regarding the use of descriptive language in and in talking about science. These conclusions bring out the reasoning by which science builds on what it has learned, and, further, how that process of building consists not only in adding to our substantive knowledge, but also in increasing our ability to learn about nature, by extending our ability to observe it in new ways. The argument of this paper is thus a step toward understanding how it is that all our knowledge of nature rests on observation.
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Cites
Carnap, R. (1936) · Philosophy of Science · doi:10.1086/286432 · Cited by 1,341
Structure and Evolution of Stars
Schwarzschild, M. (1958) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9781400879175 · Cited by 1,043
(1969) · Ontological Relativity and Other Essays · doi:10.7312/quin92204-004 · Cited by 752
Bethe, H. A. (1939) · Physical Review · doi:10.1103/physrev.55.434 · Cited by 672
Principles of stellar structure
Sweet, P. A. (1969) · Planetary and Space Science · doi:10.1016/0032-0633(69)90177-9 · Cited by 441
Bahcall, J. N., Fowler, W. A., Jr. Iben, I., et al. (1963) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/147513 · Cited by 85
Solar neutrinos: Theory versus observation
Bahcall, J. N. (1979) · Space Science Reviews · doi:10.1007/bf00167710 · Cited by 40
Kuchowicz, B. (1976) · Reports on Progress in Physics · doi:10.1088/0034-4885/39/4/001 · Cited by 30
Cited by
Supporting and Promoting Argumentation Discourse in Science Education
Duschl, R. A., & Osborne, J. (2002) · Studies in Science Education · doi:10.1080/03057260208560187 · Cited by 1,161
Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress
Chang, H. (2004) · doi:10.1093/0195171276.001.0001 · Cited by 883
Learning progressions and teaching sequences: a review and analysis
Duschl, R., Maeng, S., & Sezen, A. (2011) · Studies in Science Education · doi:10.1080/03057267.2011.604476 · Cited by 375
Old and new problems in philosophy of measurement
Tal, E. (2013) · Philosophy Compass · doi:10.1111/phc3.12089 · Cited by 154
Middle-range theory, behavioral archaeology, and postempiricist philosophy of science in archaeology
Tschauner, H. (1996) · Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · doi:10.1007/bf02228929 · Cited by 39
Metadata
- Authors
- Shapere, D.
- Venue
- Philosophy of Science
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1982-12
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 485-525
- ISSN
- 0031-8248 (ISSN-L)
- 1539-767X
- OpenAlex
- W4254644716
- Cited by
- 455
- References
- 8
- FWCI
- 25.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Shapere, D. (1982). The Concept of Observation in Science and Philosophy. Philosophy of Science. https://doi.org/10.1086/289075
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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