Читать книгу This is Philosophy of Science - Franz-Peter Griesmaier - Страница 28

As we just noted, instruments for measurement are used for principally two reasons. First, they expand the range of information about the world available to us, and second, they set up a correspondence between numerical values and properties. The second feature in particular has received attention from those concerned about the subjective character of ordinary experience and the desire for scientific objectivity. If, so they thought, we could compare properties of different objects (taken in a wide sense) with a standardized measuring instrument as opposed to using our unaided observation, certain errors could be minimized. For example, trying to gauge the temperature of a pot with a very warm hand might lead to questionable results. Better to use a thermometer. However, there are some interesting philosophical issues that are raised by the employment of measurement, and a couple of those issues rise to the status of serious problems and puzzles, such as the matter of measurement in quantum mechanics. But we start with its less problematic features.