Weighing Imponderables and Other Quantitative Science around 1800

Heilbron, J. L.

doi:10.2307/27757720

Cited by 40 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Thefaith in the ability of physics and mathematics to aid in explaining chemical phenomena is reflected in this musing of Lavoisiers found in his correspondence with Pierre-Simon Laplace (1782): [4] "Perhaps …some day …the mathematician will be able to calculate at his desk the outcome of any chemical combination, in the same way …ashecalculates the motions of celestial bodies." This sounds like am anifesto of theoretical chemistry:calculate in order to predict.…”

Section: The Dawn Of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry (1650-1840)mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Did the Tree of Knowledge Get Its Blossom? The Rise of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, with an Eye on Berlin and Leipzig

Friedrich

2016

Angew Chem Int Ed

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Section: The Dawn Of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry (1650-1840)mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Did the Tree of Knowledge Get Its Blossom? The Rise of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, with an Eye on Berlin and Leipzig

Friedrich

2016

Angew Chem Int Ed

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“…were considered measurable. Attributes such as temperature, density, and electromagnetism were in their infancy and were specifically not thought to be measurable (Heilbron, 1993; Roche, 1998). …”

Section: Quantity Vs Heterogeneous Ordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal Rasch models

et al. 2013

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Rasch's unidimensional models for measurement show how to connect object measures (e.g., reader abilities), measurement mechanisms (e.g., machine-generated cloze reading items), and observational outcomes (e.g., counts correct on reading instruments). Substantive theory shows what interventions or manipulations to the measurement mechanism can be traded off against a change to the object measure to hold the observed outcome constant. A Rasch model integrated with a substantive theory dictates the form and substance of permissible interventions. Rasch analysis, absent construct theory and an associated specification equation, is a black box in which understanding may be more illusory than not. Finally, the quantitative hypothesis can be tested by comparing theory-based trade-off relations with observed trade-off relations. Only quantitative variables (as measured) support such trade-offs. Note that to test the quantitative hypothesis requires more than manipulation of the algebraic equivalencies in the Rasch model or descriptively fitting data to the model. A causal Rasch model involves experimental intervention/manipulation on either reader ability or text complexity or a conjoint intervention on both simultaneously to yield a successful prediction of the resultant observed outcome (count correct). We conjecture that when this type of manipulation is introduced for individual reader text encounters and model predictions are consistent with observations, the quantitative hypothesis is sustained.

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“…It is important to realize that, contrary to the popular perceptions of many in the humanities and social sciences, the history of natural science has many examples of productive qualitative investigations resulting in broadly mathematical insights (Kuhn, 1977;Heilbron, 1993;Roche, 1998), such as was required, for instance, in determining what such things as temperature or electrical resistance are, accomplishments nearly completely defined by the measurability of the constructs.…”

Section: Mathematically Meaningful Constructionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences1

Fisher

2004

Hum Stud

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Academia's mathematical metaphysics are briefly explored en route to an elaboration of the qualitatively rigorous requirements underpinning the calibration and unambiguous interpretation of quantitative instrumentation in any science. Of particular interest are Gadamer's emphases on number as the paradigm of the noetic, on the role of play in interpretation, and on Hegel's sense of method as the activity of the thing itself that thought experiences. These point toward and overlap with (1) Latour's study of the metrological social networks through which technological phenomena are brought into language as modes of being that can be understood, and (2) the way that Rasch's models for measurement comprise a potential beginning for metaphysically astute, qualitatively and quantitatively integrated, mathematical methods in the social sciences. The paper closes with observations on the general problem that is philosophy, the need to remain open to multiplicities of meaning even as clear understandings are sought and obtained.

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Weighing Imponderables and Other Quantitative Science around 1800

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

How Did the Tree of Knowledge Get Its Blossom? The Rise of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, with an Eye on Berlin and Leipzig

How Did the Tree of Knowledge Get Its Blossom? The Rise of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, with an Eye on Berlin and Leipzig

Causal Rasch models

Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences1

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