THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHIES OF
SCIENCE IS AN ODD INTERACTION
BETWEEN WHAT PHILOSOPHERS SAY
AND HOW THE SCIENTISTS PRESENT
THEMSELVES TO THEMSELVES.
I MEAN, THE SCIENTISTS IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, MOST OF
THEM, CERTAINLY THE ONES IN THE
ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD,
PRESENTED THEMSELVES AS
IF THEY WERE DOING
WHAT BACON WAS DOING.
EVEN WHEN THEY PLAINLY, NOW
HISTORIANS WILL SAY, WEREN'T.
NEWTON WASN'T DOING THAT,
FOR GOODNESS SAKES.
BUT STILL, IT WAS PART OF THE
IDEOLOGY OF SCIENCE THAT IT
OBSERVED AND EXPERIMENTED.
AND SO OBSERVATION AND
EXPERIMENT WERE THE
CENTERPIECES OF SCIENCE'S
OWN VIEW OF ITSELF.
AND IN SOME WAYS REMAINED SO.
POPPER REALLY DID CRYSTALLIZE
-- JUST AS BACON
CRYSTALLIZED --
POPPER REALLY DID CRYSTALLIZE
ANOTHER CONCEPTION OF SCIENCE
AS BEING ESSENTIALLY
THEORETICAL.
THERE HAD BEEN MANY, MANY
IMMEDIATE REASONS FOR THIS.
I MEAN POPPER WAS PERSONALLY,
BUT THE WORLD WAS
COLLECTIVELY, BOWLED OVER BY THE
WAY IN WHICH EINSTEIN HAD
TRANSFORMED OUR CONCEPTIONS
OF SPACE AND TIME.
AND EVEN, PERHAPS EVEN MORE
DRAMATICALLY, THE WAY IN WHICH
THE QUANTUM MECHANICS HAD
TRANSFORMED OUR CONCEPTIONS OF
UNDERLYING CAUSALITY.
AND POPPER GREW UP, HIS YOUTH
WAS FORMED IN A WORLD WHERE
EINSTEIN AND PLANCK, AND THEN
HEISENBERG AND BOHR, WERE
HOUSEHOLD NAMES.
AND THESE WERE PEOPLE WHO
DID THEIR WORK, HE
THOUGHT, IN THE HEAD.
IT WAS THE THEORY WHICH
TRANSFORMED.
AND I THINK THAT HE USED WHAT
MAY WELL, 200 YEARS FROM NOW,
BE SEEN AS A VIRTUALLY UNIQUE
MOMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE NATURAL, THE PHYSICAL
SCIENCES.
THIS GREAT PERIOD
OF REVOLUTION.
AND AS HE SAW IT, OF REFUTATION
OF PARTICULAR
IDEAS, AND REPLACEMENT
BY OTHERS.
MOSTLY GOING ON IN
THE HEAD, WITH
EXPERIMENTS BEING THE SERVANTS.
SO THERE'S THESE PEOPLE OVER
HERE, A PERSON IN A TALK TODAY
SAID, WELL, THIS PERSON
INVENTS A CONTRAPTION.
REFERRING TO AN INCREDIBLY
SOPHISTICATED EXPERIMENTAL
DEVICE, MUCH MORE SOPHISTICATED
THAN THE THING
I'M LOOKING INTO
AT THE MOMENT.
WHICH IS NOT A CONTRAPTION.
I MEAN, I CAN CALL IT A
CONTRAPTION, BUT IT IS AN
INCREDIBLY WELL-TUNED
PIECE OF APPARATUS.
THE THEORETICIAN SAYS, HA!
CONTRAPTION.
IT'S THE IDEAS THAT
MAKE THIS MACHINE.
AND IN AN EARLIER EPOCH, IN A
BACONIAN EPOCH, PEOPLE WOULD
HAVE SAID, WELL, IT'S THE
ARTISANS, THE TECHNICIANS WHO
CREATE, WHO ARE ABLE TO
MAKE THE MACHINE WORK.
BUT THE EMPHASIS ON THEORY LED
TO A KIND OF LACK OF INTEREST
IN EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE.
IT WASN'T JUST POPPER.
THERE WAS AN IMMENSELY
INFLUENTIAL HISTORIAN OF
SCIENCE, ALEXANDRE KOYRE FRENCH
SCHOLAR, WHO SAID, ALL
THIS STUFF ABOUT GALILEO
BEING AN EXPERIMENTOR
AND OBSERVER IS FALSE.
GALILEO DID ALL HIS WORK IN
HIS HEAD, AND REALLY WAS
FOLLOWING THE ADAGES OF PLATO
ABOUT HOW TO CONDUCT RESEARCH.
NOW, KOYRE, WRITING A VERY
LITTLE BIT EARLIER THAN
POPPER, BUT BASICALLY
OVERLAPPING.
SO DOING THE HISTORICAL TURN,
SAYING, FORGET ABOUT
EXPERIMENT.
LOOK AT THE THEORY.
AND POPPER, FOR PHILOSOPHY OF
SCIENCE, DID WHAT KOYRE DID
FOR HISTORY OF SCIENCE, AND
CREATED AN ERA, A GENERATION
OR TWO, IN WHICH THE THEORY
JUST DOMINATED ALL
PHILOSOPHICAL THINKING
ABOUT SCIENCE.
AND OF COURSE, IT'S NOT THE
CASE THAT SCIENCE IS ALL
THEORY, OR SCIENCE IS
ALL EXPERIMENT.
SCIENCE IS AN INTIMATE
INTERACTION BETWEEN WHAT WE DO
WITH OUR HANDS AND WHAT
WE DO IN OUR HEADS.
AND WHAT WE DO BY TALKING
TO EACH OTHER.
