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Natural Science as a Hermeneutic of Instrumentation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Patrick Heelan
Patrick Heelan*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy State University of New York at Stony Brook
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Abstract

The author proposes the thesis that all perception, including observation in natural science, is hermeneutical as well as causal; that is, the perceiver (or observer) learns to ‘read’ instrumental or other perceptual stimuli as one learns to read a text. This hermeneutical aspect at the heart of natural science is located where it might be least expected, within acts of scientific observation. In relation to the history of science, the question is addressed to what extent the hermeneutical component within scientific observation opens natural science to the charge of reflecting merely cultural values, and of providing merely a culturally acceptable reading of the “Book of Nature”, rather than, as the author states, one stating universal antecedent conditions of possibility of cultural activity itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 181 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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