IBP Psychology and Science

Chapter 2: Observation as practical intervention

Passive: Observation is passive insofar as it is presumed that when seeing, for example, we simply open and direct our eyes, let the information flow in, and record what is there to be seen.

Private: Since two observers do not have access to each other’s perceptions, there is no way they can enter into a dialogue about the validity of the facts they are presumed to establish.

Active: In the act of seeing we scan objects, move our heads to test for expected changes in the observed scene and so on.

Public: Micrographia (1665), for example, contains many detailed descriptions and drawings that resulted from Hooke’s actions and observations. These productions were and are public, not private. They can be checked, criticized and added to by others.

Objective: Example - Galileo proved that Jupiter had moons:

• He argued against the suggestion that they were an illusion produced by the telescope by pointing out that that suggestion made it difficult to explain why the moons appeared near Jupiter and nowhere else
• Galileo could appeal to the consistency and repeatability of his measurements and their compatibility with the assumption that the moons orbit Jupiter with a constant period.
• Galileo’s quantitative data were verified by independent observers
• He was able to predict further positions of the moons and the occurrence of transits and eclipses, and these too were confirmed by himself and independent observers.
• Galileo’s observations were objective in the sense that they involved routine procedures which, if repeated today, would give much the same results

Observations suitable for constituting a basis for scientific knowledge are both objective and fallible:

• They are objective insofar as they can be publicly tested by straightforward procedures
• they are fallible insofar as they may be undermined by new kinds of tests made possible by advances in science and technology

Resources:

What is This Thing Called Science 4^th Edition (CHALMERS)