Essay on the metaphysical character of measurements
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1983-4012.2019.1.32527Keywords:
Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of MeasurementAbstract
The following text presents an essay on the metaphysical characteristics of measurements, in order to show how the philosophy of this scientific practice encompass metaphysical thoughts. The contemporary philosophy of science has a subarea of investigation that has been denominated by “philosophy of the measurement”, which consists in a philosophical analysis that puts easurements as its ain object of study. Looking to the philosophical problems that emerge from scientific practice, the philosophy of measurement investigates some epistemic, ontological and metaphysical questions about the nature of measurements, which can be exemplified in three general topics: 1) why we can measure some things and not others; 2) what conditions make the measurements possible; and 3) what the results of the measurements mean The purpose of this paper is to show how the investigations in philosophy of measurement touch upon important metaphysical questions. The main argument of this article can be understood as follows: independent of the philosophical theory that we assume, any theorization about the measurements entails the ancient philosophical problem about how the abstract are related to the concrete.
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