7/12/2023 0 Comments Kant noumena and phenomenaVan Fraassen characterizes observability counterfactually: "X is observable if there are circumstances which are such that, if X is present to us under those circumstances, then we observe it". If a theory is true in this restricted sense, it is called an empirically adequate theory. According to van Fraassen, the goal of scientific theories is not truth about all entities but only truth about all observable entities. The notion of observability plays a central role in constructive empiricism. It contrasts with instrumentalism, which asserts that we should withhold ontological commitments to unobservables even though it is useful for scientific theories to refer to them. The theory that unobservables posited by scientific theories exist is referred to as scientific realism. The ontological nature and epistemological issues concerning unobservables are central topics in philosophy of science. Primary qualities would be the actual qualities of the things themselves which give rise to the secondary qualities which humans perceive. Secondary qualities are what humans perceive such as redness, chirping, heat, mustiness or sweetness. Kant's distinction is similar to John Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities. Locke on primary and secondary qualities According to Kant, humans can never know noumena all that humans know is the phenomena. Noumena are the things-in-themselves, i.e., raw things in their necessarily unknowable state, before they pass through the formalizing apparatus of the senses and the mind in order to become perceived objects, which he refers to as "phenomena". The distinction between "observable" and "unobservable" is similar to Immanuel Kant's distinction between noumena and phenomena. Different notions of unobservability have been formulated corresponding to different types of obstacles to their observation. There is considerable disagreement about which objects should be classified as unobservable, for example, whether bacteria studied using microscopes or positrons studied using cloud chambers count as unobservable. : 7 The distinction between observable and unobservable plays a central role in Immanuel Kant's distinction between noumena and phenomena as well as in John Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities. In philosophy of science, typical examples of "unobservables" are the force of gravity, causation and beliefs or desires. An unobservable (also called impalpable) is an entity whose existence, nature, properties, qualities or relations are not directly observable by humans.
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