Research Catalog

Title

The play of nature : experimentation as performance / Robert P. Crease.

Author

Crease, Robert P.

Publication

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, ©1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

ix, 206 pages; 25 cm.

Summary

This novel approach to philosophy of science asserts that experimentation is at the center of science and explains the experimental process through an analogy with theatrical performance. Attacking positivist and Kantian varieties of philosophy of science in which experimentation takes a backseat to theory, Robert R. Crease develops his conception of the centrality of experimentation via an argumentative analogy with theatrical performances. To establish his program, Crease draws on three nonpositivist strands of recent philosophy: Husserl's phenomenology to clarify the notion of invariance, Dewey's pragmatism to make needed revisions in our idea of productive inquiry, and Heidegger's hermeneutics to formulate a concept of interpretation appropriate to the cultural and historical "lifeworld" in which members of a scientific community think and act.

Series Statement

The Indiana series in the philosophy of technology

Uniform Title

Indiana series in the philosophy of technology

Subject

• Science > Philosophy
• Science > Experiments > Philosophy
• Performance
• Performance technology
• Task Performance and Analysis
• Performance
• Science > Experiments > Philosophy
• Science > Philosophy
• Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Experiment
• Experimenten
• Filosofische aspecten
• Experimenteel onderzoek

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-202) and index.

Contents

Foreword / Don Ihde -- Introduction: The Problem of Experimentation. The Neglect of Experiment. Value of the Inquiry for Science. Value of the Inquiry for Philosophy -- I. The Mythic Account of Experimentation. The Mythic Account. Philosophers and Experimentation. Philosophical Tools Needed -- II. Philosophers and Productive Inquiry. John Dewey and Inquiry. Edmund Husserl and Invariance. Martin Heidegger and Interpretation -- III. Experimentation as a Performing Art: The Theatrical Analogy. Analogy. Perception and Scientific Phenomena. Primacy of the Phenomenon. The Analogy between Experimentation and Performance -- IV. Performance: Presentation. Laboratories. The Technology and Artistry of Experimentation. Text and Act Hermeneutics -- V. Performance: Representation. Theory as Scripting. The Role of Mathematics. Path-Dependency: Classical versus Nonclassical Phenomena -- VI. Performance: Recognition. Discovery as Recognition. Aristotle on Recognition. Recognition and the Manipulability of Profiles -- VII. Performance and Production: The Relation between Science as Inquiry and Science as Cultural Practice. Production. Science as Inquiry and as Cultural Practice. Implications for Narratives about Science -- Conclusion: The Play of Nature.

ISBN

• 0585105782
• 9780585105789
• 0253314747
• 9780253314741

LCCN

93002735

OCLC

• ocm27380421
• 27380421
• SCSB-9645620

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library