Reasoning in Measurement

Nicola Mößner, Junior Fellow at Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald in Germany. She received her M.A. in German Literature and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Münster. Her thesis is about the epistemology of testimony and the special case of media reports, published as Wissen aus dem Zeugnis anderer – der Sonderfall medialer Berichterstattung (Paderborn: mentis 2010). Currently she works on a research project concerning the epistemic role of visualisations in science. In this context, she edited (together with Dimitri Liebsch) Visualisierung und Erkenntnis – Bildverstehen und Bildverwenden in Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften (Cologne: Herbert von Halem 2012). Her main interests comprise philosophy of science and social epistemology. Alfred Nordmann, professor of Philosophy at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Nordmann’s interests in the philosophy of science concern the formation and contestation of fields of inquiry such as chemistry and theories of electricity in the 18th century, mechanics, evolutionary biology, and sociology in the 19th century. In particular, he sought to articulate implicit concepts of science and objectivity. In 2000, he embarked on a similar endeavor in regard to nanoscience and converging technologies which has led him to promote and develop a comprehensive philosophy of technoscience. Since the technosciences require new answers to the familiar questions of knowledge and objectivity, theory and evidence, explanation and validation, representation and experimentation, Nordmann is seeking to address these and related questions in his current work.

• 1 Epistemological Dimensions of MeasurementNicola Mößner and Alfred NordmannPART IFounding Figures2 Of Compass, Chain, and Sounding Line: Taking Thoreau’s MeasureLaura Dassow Walls3 Operationalism: Old Lessons and New ChallengesHasok ChangPART IIImages as Measurements4 Photo MensuraPatrick Maynard5 The Media Aesthetics of Brain Imaging in Popular ScienceLiv Hausken6 Compressed Sensing – A New Mode of MeasurementThomas Vogt7 The Altered Image: Composite Figures and Evidential Reasoning with Mechanically Produced ImagesLaura Perini8 Visual Data – Reasons to be Relied on? Nicola Mößner9 Pictorial Evidence: On the Rightness of PicturesTobias SchöttlerPART IIIMeasuring the Immeasurable10 Measurement in Medicine and Beyond: Quality of Life, Blood Pressure and TimeLeah McClimans11 Measuring Intelligence Effectively: Psychometrics from a Philosophy of Technology PerspectiveAndreas Kaminski12 The Klein Sexual Orientation Grid and the Measurement of Human SexualityDonna J. Drucker13 The Desert and the Dendrograph: Place, Community and Ecological InstrumentationEmily K. BrockPART IVCalibrating Mind and World14 Scientific Measurement as Cognitive Integration: The Role of Cognitive Integration in the Growth of Scientific KnowledgeGodfrey Guillaumin15 Measurements in the Engineering Sciences: An Epistemology of Producing Knowledge of Physical PhenomenaMieke Boon16 Uncertainty and Modeling in Seismology Teru Miyake17 A Model-Based Epistemology of Measurement Eran TalIndex