Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress (Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Science)

What is temperature, and how can we measure it correctly? These may seem like simple questions, but the most renowned scientists struggled with them throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In Inventing Temperature, Chang examines how scientists first created thermometers; how they measured temperature beyond the reach of standard thermometers; and how they managed to assess the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves. In a discussion that brings together the history of science with the philosophy of science, Chang presents the simple eet challenging epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. Chang's book shows that many items of knowledge that we take for granted now are in fact spectacular achievements, obtained only after a great deal of innovative thinking, painstaking experiments, bold conjectures, and controversy. Lurking behind these achievements are some very important philosophical questions about how and when people accept the authority of science. Contents......Page 13 Note on Translation......Page 17 Chronology......Page 19 Introduction......Page 23 Blood, Butter, and Deep Cellars: The Necessity and Scarcity of Fixed Points......Page 28 The Vexatious Variations of the Boiling Point......Page 31 Superheating and the Mirage of True Ebullition......Page 37 Escape from Superheating......Page 43 The Understanding of Boiling......Page 48 A Dusty Epilogue......Page 55 Analysis: The Meaning and Achievement of Fixity......Page 59 The Validation of Standards: Justificatory Descent......Page 60 The Iterative Improvement of Standards: Constructive Ascent......Page 64 The Defense of Fixity: Plausible Denial and Serendipitous Robustness......Page 68 The Case of the Freezing Point......Page 73 The Problem of Nomic Measurement......Page 77 De Luc and the Method of Mixtures......Page 80 Caloric Theories against the Method of Mixtures......Page 84 The Calorist Mirage of Gaseous Linearity......Page 89 Regnault: Austerity and Comparability......Page 94 The Verdict: Air over Mercury......Page 99 The Achievement of Observability, by Stages......Page 104 Comparability and the Ontological Principle of Single Value......Page 109 Minimalism against Duhemian Holism......Page 112 Regnault and Post-Laplacian Empiricism......Page 116 Narrative: Measuring Temperature When Thermometers Melt and Freeze......Page 123 Can Mercury Be Frozen?......Page 124 Can Mercury Tell Us Its Own Freezing Point?......Page 127 Consolidating the Freezing Point of Mercury......Page 133 Adventures of a Scientific Potter......Page 138 It Is Temperature, but Not As We Know It?......Page 143 Ganging Up on Wedgwood......Page 148 Analysis: The Extension of Concepts beyond Their Birth Domains......Page 161 Travel Advisory from Percy Bridgman......Page 162 Beyond Bridgman: Meaning, Definition, and Validity......Page 168 Strategies for Metrological Extension......Page 172 Mutual Grounding as a Growth Strategy......Page 175 Narrative: The Quest for the Theoretical Meaning of Temperature......Page 179 Temperature, Heat, and Cold......Page 180 Theoretical Temperature before Thermodynamics......Page 188 William Thomson’s Move to the Abstract......Page 193 Thomson’s Second Absolute Temperature......Page 202 Semi-Concrete Models of the Carnot Cycle......Page 206 Using Gas Thermometers to Approximate Absolute Temperature......Page 212 The Hidden Difficulties of Reduction......Page 217 Dealing with Abstractions......Page 222 Operationalization and Its Validity......Page 225 Accuracy through Iteration......Page 232 Theoretical Temperature without Thermodynamics?......Page 237 5. Measurement, Justification, and Scientific Progress......Page 240 Measurement, Circularity, and Coherentism......Page 241 Making Coherentism Progressive: Epistemic Iteration......Page 244 Fruits of Iteration: Enrichment and Self-Correction......Page 248 Tradition, Progress, and Pluralism......Page 251 The Abstract and the Concrete......Page 253 6. Complementary Science—History and Philosophy of Science as a Continuation of Science by Other Means......Page 255 The Complementary Function of History and Philosophy of Science......Page 256 Philosophy, History, and Their Interaction in Complementary Science......Page 258 The Character of Knowledge Generated by Complementary Science......Page 260 Relations to Other Modes of Historical and Philosophical Study of Science......Page 267 A Continuation of Science by Other Means......Page 269 A......Page 271 C......Page 272 F......Page 273 I......Page 274 M......Page 275 P......Page 276 S......Page 277 W......Page 278 Bibliography......Page 279 A......Page 295 C......Page 296 E......Page 298 H......Page 299 J......Page 300 M......Page 301 O......Page 302 R......Page 303 S......Page 304 T......Page 305 Z......Page 306 "What is temperature, and how can we measure it correctly? These may seem like simple questions, but the most renowned scientists struggled with them throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In Inventing Temperature, Chang examines how scientists first created thermometers; how they measured temperature beyond the reach of standard thermometers; and how they managed to assess the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves." "In a discussion that brings together the history of science with the philosophy of science, Chang presents the simple yet challenging epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. Chang's book shows that many items of knowledge that we take for granted now are in fact spectacular achievements, obtained only after a great deal of innovative thinking, painstaking experiments, bold conjectures, and controversy. Lurking behind these achievements are some very important philosophical questions about how and when people accept the authority of science."--Jacket.

What is temperature, and how can we measure it correctly? These may seem like simple questions, but the most renowned scientists struggled with them throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In Inventing Temperature, Chang examines how scientists first created thermometers; how they measured temperature beyond the reach of standard thermometers; and how they managed to assess the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves.

In a discussion that brings together the history of science with the philosophy of science, Chang presents the simple eet challenging epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. Chang's book shows that many items of knowledge that we take for granted now are in fact spectacular achievements, obtained only after a great deal of innovative thinking, painstaking experiments, bold conjectures, and controversy. Lurking behind these achievements are some very important philosophical questions about how and when people accept the authority of science.

The author presents simple yet challenging epistemic and technical questions about temperature-measuring instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. He also shows that many items of knowledge we take for granted are in fact spectacular achievements obtained after a great deal of innovative thinking The scientific study of heat started with the invention of the thermometer That is a well-worn cliche, but it contains enough truth to serve as the starting point of our inquiry.