Resources This book is available in Oxford Scholarship Online - view abstracts and keywords at book and chapter level.
Related Categories
|
|
|
Scientific Representation
Paradoxes of Perspective
Bas C. van Fraassen
416 pages
|
234x156mm
978-0-19-927822-0
|
Hardback
|
14 August 2008
|
|
|
|
|
- A highly original investigation of a fascinating topic
- A major new work from one of the leading philosophers of today
Bas C. van Fraassen presents an original exploration of how we represent the world. Science represents natural phenomena by means of theories, as well as in many concrete ways by such means as pictures, graphs, table-top models, and computer simulations. Scientific Representation begins with an inquiry into the nature of representation in general, drawing on such diverse sources as Plato's dialogues, the development of perspectival drawing in the Renaissance, and the geometric styles of modelling in modern physics. Starting with Mach's and Poincaré's analyses of measurement and the 'problem of coordination', van Fraassen then presents a view of measurement outcomes as representations. With respect to the theories of contemporary science he defends an
empiricist structuralist version of the 'picture theory' of science, through an inquiry into the paradoxes that came to light in twentieth-century philosophies of science. Van Fraassen concludes with an analysis of the complex relationship between appearance and reality in the scientific world-picture.Readership: Advanced students and scholars of philosophy; scientists interested in philosophy.
|
|
|
Bas C. van Fraassen, Princeton University and San Francisco State University
|
|
|
"a typically erudite survey of many kinds of representation both outside science and within, ranging from portraits and perspective to maps and measurement... an ingenious thinker" - David Papineau, Times Literary Supplement "Densely argued, erudite and rich in examples from both art and science... Scientific Representation is both provocative and subtle, and will appeal to a more general readership as well as the science studies aficionado. It takes us beyond the issue of representation in science to offer one of the most well thought-out representations of science currently available." - Steven French, Times Higher Education "develops a sophisticated, intriguing, subtle line of argument... This is a
book with an important and intricate story to tell, and it does it with so much attention to historical, philosophical, scientific, and even artistic details that makes it an occasion for a thousand wider meditations." - Michela Massimi, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science "empiricist structuralism seems to be even more sophisticated than constructive empiricism... [it] is likely to prove an even more formiddable opponent for scientific realists of all stripes and to be at the centre of the debate for a long time to come." - Gabriele Contessa, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
|
|
|
Preface
Introduction: the 'picture theory of science'
PART ONE: REPRESENTATION
1.1: Representation of, Representation as
1.2: Imaging, Picturing, and Scaling
1.3: Pictorial Perspective and the Indexical
PART TWO. WINDOWS, ENGINES, AND MEASUREMENT
2.1: A Window on the Invisible World (?)
2.2: The Problem of Coordination
2.3: Measurement as Representation (1) The Physical Correlate
2.4: Measurement as Representation (2) Information
PART THREE. STRUCTURE AND PERSPECTIVE
3.1: From the Bildtheorie of science to paradox
3.2: The Longest Journey: Bertrand Russell
3.3: Carnap's Lost World and Putnam's Paradox
3.4: An Empiricist Structuralism
PART FOUR. APPEARANCE AND REALITY
4.1: Appearance vs. Reality in the Sciences
4.2: Rejecting the Appearance from Reality Criterion
APPENDICES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTES
|
|
|
|
Recently Viewed
|
|
|
A Practical Approach
Elena Notarianni, Martin J. Evans
£55.00
|
|
|
|
|
Martin Scott-Brown, Roy AJ Spence...
£21.95
|
|
|
|
|
The Regimental System, the British Army, and the British People c.1870-2000
David French
£66.00
|
|
|
|
|
The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
|
|
