Modern science and technology are interwoven into a complex that is sometimes called 'techno-science': the progress of science is dependent on the sophistication of instrumentation, whereas the progress of 'high-tech' instruments and apparatus is dependent on scientific research. Yet, how scientific research contributes to the development of instruments and apparatus for technological use, has not been systematically addressed in the philosophy of technology, nor in the philosophy of science. Philosophers of technology have taken an interest in the specific character of technological knowledge as distinct from scientific knowledge, thereby ignoring the contribution of scientific knowledge to technological developments. Philosophers of science such as the so-called New-Experimentalists, on the other hand, recently has become interested in the role of instrumentation, but merely focus on their role in testing scientific theories. By reviewing the two distinct developments and taking them a step further, an alternative explanation of the interwoveness of science and technology in scientific research is proposed. Additional to testing theories, instruments in scientific practice have an important role in producing reproducible phenomena, and these phenomena may have technological applications. Subsequently, technological development of these applications requires theoretical understanding of the phenomenon and of materials and physical conditions that produce it, is not for the sake of theories about the world, but for the sake of understanding a phenomenon and how it is technologically produced.
Science and Technology.At present, many accept that modern science and technology are interwoven into a complex that is sometimes called 'techno-science': the progress of science is dependent on the sophistication of instrumentation, whereas the progress of 'high-tech' instruments and apparatus is dependent on scientific research. (c.p. Galison 1987(c.p. Galison , 1997 Baird and Faust, 1990;Radder, 1996Radder, , 2003. From this perspective, an understanding of how scientific research interacts with technology, in particular in the development of instruments and apparatus, is a topic for both philosophy of technology and philosophy of science. The focus taken here is how scientific research contributes to the development of instruments and apparatus for technological use.In philosophy of technology, recent interest has been in the nature of technological knowledge, (e.g. Vincenti, 1990;Kroes, 1995;Pitt, 2000), rather than in how scientific research contributes to technological development. In that literature, science is valued for its heuristic role, whereas scientific approaches to the development of technology are non-existent. Conceptual and historical reasons may explain this focus. Traditionally, science and technology were distinct domains. The classical dichotomy between scientific knowledge (epistême) and technological knowledge (têchnè) was grounded in the ontological distinction between their objects: Scientific ...