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

Contents......Page 12
Note on Translation......Page 16
Chronology......Page 18
Introduction......Page 22
Blood, Butter, and Deep Cellars: The Necessity and Scarcity of Fixed Points......Page 27
The Vexatious Variations of the Boiling Point......Page 30
Superheating and the Mirage of True Ebullition......Page 36
Escape from Superheating......Page 42
The Understanding of Boiling......Page 47
A Dusty Epilogue......Page 54
Analysis: The Meaning and Achievement of Fixity......Page 58
The Validation of Standards: Justificatory Descent......Page 59
The Iterative Improvement of Standards: Constructive Ascent......Page 63
The Defense of Fixity: Plausible Denial and Serendipitous Robustness......Page 67
The Case of the Freezing Point......Page 72
The Problem of Nomic Measurement......Page 76
De Luc and the Method of Mixtures......Page 79
Caloric Theories against the Method of Mixtures......Page 83
The Calorist Mirage of Gaseous Linearity......Page 88
Regnault: Austerity and Comparability......Page 93
The Verdict: Air over Mercury......Page 98
The Achievement of Observability, by Stages......Page 103
Comparability and the Ontological Principle of Single Value......Page 108
Minimalism against Duhemian Holism......Page 111
Regnault and Post-Laplacian Empiricism......Page 115
Narrative: Measuring Temperature When Thermometers Melt and Freeze......Page 122
Can Mercury Be Frozen?......Page 123
Can Mercury Tell Us Its Own Freezing Point?......Page 126
Consolidating the Freezing Point of Mercury......Page 132
Adventures of a Scientific Potter......Page 137
It Is Temperature, but Not As We Know It?......Page 142
Ganging Up on Wedgwood......Page 147
Analysis: The Extension of Concepts beyond Their Birth Domains......Page 160
Travel Advisory from Percy Bridgman......Page 161
Beyond Bridgman: Meaning, Definition, and Validity......Page 167
Strategies for Metrological Extension......Page 171
Mutual Grounding as a Growth Strategy......Page 174
Narrative: The Quest for the Theoretical Meaning of Temperature......Page 178
Temperature, Heat, and Cold......Page 179
Theoretical Temperature before Thermodynamics......Page 187
William Thomson’s Move to the Abstract......Page 192
Thomson’s Second Absolute Temperature......Page 201
Semi-Concrete Models of the Carnot Cycle......Page 205
Using Gas Thermometers to Approximate Absolute Temperature......Page 211
The Hidden Difficulties of Reduction......Page 216
Dealing with Abstractions......Page 221
Operationalization and Its Validity......Page 224
Accuracy through Iteration......Page 231
Theoretical Temperature without Thermodynamics?......Page 236
5. Measurement, Justification, and Scientific Progress......Page 239
Measurement, Circularity, and Coherentism......Page 240
Making Coherentism Progressive: Epistemic Iteration......Page 243
Fruits of Iteration: Enrichment and Self-Correction......Page 247
Tradition, Progress, and Pluralism......Page 250
The Abstract and the Concrete......Page 252
6. Complementary Science—History and Philosophy of Science as a Continuation of Science by Other Means......Page 254
The Complementary Function of History and Philosophy of Science......Page 255
Philosophy, History, and Their Interaction in Complementary Science......Page 257
The Character of Knowledge Generated by Complementary Science......Page 259
Relations to Other Modes of Historical and Philosophical Study of Science......Page 266
A Continuation of Science by Other Means......Page 268
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W......Page 277
Bibliography......Page 278
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