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Single Idea 15869

[filed under theme 14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 3. Experiment ]

Full Idea

In accounts of experiments, by Faraday and others, the role of the guiding hand of the actual experimenter is written out in successive accounts. The effect is to display the phenomenon as a natural occurrence, existing independently of the experiments.

Gist of Idea

Reports of experiments eliminate the experimenter, and present results as the behaviour of nature

Source

Rom Harré (Laws of Nature [1993], 1)

Book Ref

Harré,Rom: 'Laws of Nature' [Duckworth 1993], p.37

A Reaction

He records three stages in Faraday's reports. The move from active to passive voice is obviously part of it. The claim of universality is thus implicit rather than explicit.

The 15 ideas with the same theme [deliberate isolation of one cause or effect]:

12117 Science moves up and down between inventions of causes, and experiments [Bacon]
6603 Nature is revealed when we put it under pressure rather than observe it [Bacon]
3618 Only experiments can settle disagreements between rival explanations [Descartes]
16944 Science is common sense, with a sophisticated method [Quine]
15869 Reports of experiments eliminate the experimenter, and present results as the behaviour of nature [Harré]
7452 An experiment is a test, or an adventure, or a diagnosis, or a dissection [Hacking, by PG]
2454 We can deliberately cause ourselves to have true thoughts - hence the value of experiments [Fodor]
2455 Interrogation and experiment submit us to having beliefs caused [Fodor]
2461 An experiment is a deliberate version of what informal thinking does all the time [Fodor]
2460 Participation in an experiment requires agreement about what the outcome will mean [Fodor]
22172 Not all sciences are experimental; astronomy relies on careful observation [Okasha]
22177 Randomised Control Trials have a treatment and a control group, chosen at random [Okasha]
14351 Maybe an experiment unmasks an essential disposition, and reveals its regularities [Corry]
22139 Experiments don't just observe; they look to see what interventions change the natural order [Boulter]
22357 The 'experimenter's regress' says success needs reliability, which is only tested by success [Reiss/Sprenger]