1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910974358703321

Autore

Baird Davis

Titolo

Thing knowledge : a philosophy of scientific instruments / / Davis Baird

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, Calif., : University of California Press, c2004

ISBN

9786612356681

9780520928206

0520928202

9781282356689

1282356682

9781597349505

159734950X

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (297 p.)

Classificazione

TB 2280

Disciplina

502/.8/4

Soggetti

Scientific apparatus and instruments

Science - Philosophy

Science - Technological innovations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-259) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Instrument epistemology -- Models : representing things -- Working knowledge -- Encapsulating knowledge -- Instrumentation revolution -- Thing knowledge -- The thing-y-ness of things -- Between technology and science -- Instrumental objectivity -- The gift.

Sommario/riassunto

Western philosophers have traditionally concentrated on theory as the means for expressing knowledge about a variety of phenomena. This absorbing book challenges this fundamental notion by showing how objects themselves, specifically scientific instruments, can express knowledge. As he considers numerous intriguing examples, Davis Baird gives us the tools to "read" the material products of science and technology and to understand their place in culture. Making a provocative and original challenge to our conception of knowledge itself, Thing Knowledge demands that we take a new look at theories of science and technology, knowledge, progress, and change. Baird considers a wide range of instruments, including Faraday's first electric



motor, eighteenth-century mechanical models of the solar system, the cyclotron, various instruments developed by analytical chemists between 1930 and 1960, spectrometers, and more.