Concept tag
#experiment
-
Is a controlled experiment a new source of knowledge, or only perception with discipline?
I have been reading A. I. Sabra's translation of the first books of Ibn al-Haytham's Optics with two of my tutoring students, and it has raised a question I can't settle. The standard lists of sources of knowledge, whether European or Indian,…
Started by Emeka Nwosu0 replies62 views -
Hacking’s test for reality: if you can spray it, it’s real. Does that work for genes?
Ian Hacking, in Representing and Intervening (1983), argued that we should stop expecting theories to settle what exists. Look at the laboratory instead. Experimenters spray electrons at a target to change its charge. They use electrons as tools, reliably, to investigate something…
Started by Ignacio Fuenzalida4 replies160 views -
What Ibn al-Haytham actually did, and why “father of the scientific method” overstates it
Every few weeks someone sends me a graphic declaring that Ibn al-Haytham invented the scientific method centuries before Bacon. I understand the impulse. The standard Western story did put the origins of experimental practice far too late. But the slogan replaces one…
Started by Layla Haddad5 replies249 views