Title: Scientific representation : paradoxes of perspective /
Authors: Van Fraassen, Bas C., 1941-
Publisher: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: S.; Philosophy; Science; Science Philosophy
Abstract: The author presents an original exploration of how we represent the world. He investigates the nature of representation in both science and art, defends a distinctive position in contemporary philosophy of science, and illuminates the complex relationship between appearance and reality.
Contents: Representation of, representation as -- Imaging, picturing, and scaling -- Pictorial perspective and the indexical -- A window on the invisible world -- The problem of coordination -- Measurement as representation: 1. The physical correlate -- Measurement as representation: 2. Information -- From the bildtheorie of science to paradox -- The longest journey: Bertrand Russell -- Carnap's lost world and Putnam's paradox -- An empiricist structuralism -- Appearance vs. reality in the sciences -- Rejecting the appearance from reality criterion.