Overview

This collection offers a new understanding of the epistemology of measurement. The interdisciplinary volume explores how measurements are produced, for example, in astronomy and seismology, in studies of human sexuality and ecology, in brain imaging and intelligence testing. It considers photography as a measurement technology and Henry David Thoreau's poetic measures as closing the gap between mind and world. By focusing on measurements as the hard-won results of conceptual as well as technical operations, the authors of the book no longer presuppose that measurement is always and exclusively a means of representing some feature of a target object or entity. Measurement also provides knowledge about the degree to which things have been standardized or harmonized – it is an indicator of how closely human practices are attuned to each other and the world.

Full Product Details

Author:   Nicola Mößner (Aachen University, Germany) ,  Alfred Nordmann (Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9781138331945

ISBN 10:   1138331945
Pages:   262
Publication Date:   14 August 2018
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1 Epistemological Dimensions of Measurement Nicola Mößner and Alfred Nordmann PART I Founding Figures 2 Of Compass, Chain, and Sounding Line: Taking Thoreau’s Measure Laura Dassow Walls 3 Operationalism: Old Lessons and New Challenges Hasok Chang PART II Images as Measurements 4 Photo Mensura Patrick Maynard 5 The Media Aesthetics of Brain Imaging in Popular Science Liv Hausken 6 Compressed Sensing – A New Mode of Measurement Thomas Vogt 7 The Altered Image: Composite Figures and Evidential Reasoning with Mechanically Produced Images Laura Perini 8 Visual Data – Reasons to be Relied on? Nicola Mößner 9 Pictorial Evidence: On the Rightness of Pictures Tobias Schöttler PART III Measuring the Immeasurable 10 Measurement in Medicine and Beyond: Quality of Life, Blood Pressure and Time Leah McClimans 11 Measuring Intelligence Effectively: Psychometrics from a Philosophy of Technology Perspective Andreas Kaminski 12 The Klein Sexual Orientation Grid and the Measurement of Human Sexuality Donna J. Drucker 13 The Desert and the Dendrograph: Place, Community and Ecological Instrumentation Emily K. Brock PART IV Calibrating Mind and World 14 Scientific Measurement as Cognitive Integration: The Role of Cognitive Integration in the Growth of Scientific Knowledge Godfrey Guillaumin 15 Measurements in the Engineering Sciences: An Epistemology of Producing Knowledge of Physical Phenomena Mieke Boon 16 Uncertainty and Modeling in Seismology Teru Miyake 17 A Model-Based Epistemology of Measurement Eran Tal Index

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Author Information

Nicola Mößner, Junior Fellow at Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald in Germany. She received her M.A. in German Literature and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Münster. Her thesis is about the epistemology of testimony and the special case of media reports, published as Wissen aus dem Zeugnis anderer – der Sonderfall medialer Berichterstattung (Paderborn: mentis 2010). Currently she works on a research project concerning the epistemic role of visualisations in science. In this context, she edited (together with Dimitri Liebsch) Visualisierung und Erkenntnis – Bildverstehen und Bildverwenden in Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften (Cologne: Herbert von Halem 2012). Her main interests comprise philosophy of science and social epistemology. Alfred Nordmann, professor of Philosophy at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Nordmann’s interests in the philosophy of science concern the formation and contestation of fields of inquiry such as chemistry and theories of electricity in the 18th century, mechanics, evolutionary biology, and sociology in the 19th century. In particular, he sought to articulate implicit concepts of science and objectivity. In 2000, he embarked on a similar endeavor in regard to nanoscience and converging technologies which has led him to promote and develop a comprehensive philosophy of technoscience. Since the technosciences require new answers to the familiar questions of knowledge and objectivity, theory and evidence, explanation and validation, representation and experimentation, Nordmann is seeking to address these and related questions in his current work.

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