CHAPTER 9 for Chalmers AF 1999 What is This Thing Called Science- (3e) 0872204537

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!

i

.1

I

AlE

Chalmers

What is

this

thing

called

Science?

third

edition

Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

Indianapolis / Cambridge

r.

Copyright

©

1976, 1982, 1999 by

A.

F.

ChalmersReprinted from the 1999 third edition,University

of

Queensland PressBox 42, St. Lucia, Queensland 4067 AustraliaThis book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes

of

private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under theCopyright Act, no part may be reproduced

by

any process withoutwritten permission.Typeset by University

of

Queensland PressPrinted in the United States

of

AmericaCo-published in North America byHackett Publishing Company, Inc.

P.O.

Box 44937, Indianapolis, IN 46244-093704 03 02

01

00

991 2 3 4 5

678

Library

of

Congress Catalog card Number:

99-71498

Paper ISBN 0-87220-452-9Cloth ISBN 0-87220-453-7The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements

of

American National Standard for Information Sciences -Permanence

of

Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 239.48-1984.

9

"Like all young men I

set

out to be agenius,

but

mercifully

laughter

intervened."

Clea

Lawrence Durrell

Contents

Preface

to

the

first edition

xi

Preface

to

the

second edition

xiv

Preface to

the third

edition

xv~

Introduction

x~x

1.

Science

as

knowledge

derived

from

the

facts

of

experience

1A widely held commonsense view of science 1Seeing is believing 4Visual experiences

not

determined solely by

the

objectviewed 5Observable facts expressed

as

statements

10

Why should facts precede theory? 12The fallibility of observation

statements

14

Further

reading

18

~.

Observation

as practical intervention

19JObservation: passive

and

private or active

and

public? 19Galileo

and the

moons of

Jupiter

22Observable facts objective

but

fallible 24

Further

reading

263.

Experiment

27

Not

just

facts

but

relevant facts

27

The production and

updating

of experimental results 29Transforming

the

experimental base of science: historicalexamples 31

JExperiment

as an

adequate basis for science

38

Further

reading

40

4.

Deriving

theories

from

the

facts:

induction

41Introduction 41Baby logic

41

Can

scientific laws be derived from

the

facts? 43

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