How Does Measuring Generate Evidence? The Problem of Observational Grounding

2016 Joint IMEKO TC1-TC7-TC13 Symposium: Metrology Across the Sciences: Wishful Thinking?

Tal, Eran^1

Department of Philosophy, McGill University, Montreal, Canada^1

关键词: Measurement process;    Scientific evidence;    Statistical modeling;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/772/1/012001/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/772/1/012001

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

The epistemology of measurement is an area of philosophy that studies the relationships between measurement and knowledge. One of its central aims is to explain how measurement can function as a reliable source of scientific evidence. Key to such explanation is a clear characterization of the dependence of measurement on observation, but such characterization has remained elusive. This article traces the recent historical trajectory of views on the observational grounding of measurement, clarifies the current state of the problem, and proposes new directions for progress. Specifically, I argue in favour of viewing measurement outcomes as the best predictors of observed instrument indications under a given theoretical-statistical model of the measurement process. The evidential efficacy of measurement outcomes is explained by their relatively high epistemic security, rather than by their inferential or structural closeness to observation.