Measurement theory in the context of scientific enquiry

DAVIDE RIZZA -University of East Anglia (UK)

Abstract: The body of work on mathematical models of measurement known as ‘measurement theory’ is not yet adequately understood from a philosophical standpoint. Recent evaluations of measurement theory (in this paper I focus on Heilmann (2015), Philippi (2021) and Tal (2021)) have dislocated it from the context of scientific enquiry, making it harder to appreciate its motivation and connection with experimental and theoretical work. This paper seeks to clarify what measurement theory is and does, offering a mathematically more nuanced account of its results than currently available in the philosophical literature. 

REFERENCES

Heilmann, C. `A New Interpretation of the Representational Theory of Measurement’, Philosophy of Science 82: 787-797 (2015)

Philippi, C.L. `On Measurement Scales: Neither Ordinal nor Interval?’, Philosophy of Science 88: 929-939 (2021)

Tal, E. `Two Myths of Representational Measurement’, Perspectives on Science 29: 701-{741 (2021)

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DAVIDE RIZZA is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), School of Politics, Philosophy and Area Studies of the University of East Anglia (UK) His areas of research are Philosophy of Mathematics, Philosophy of Science, Foundations of Measurement and John Dewey’s Pragmatism.  His book Model Theory: the algebraic basics, Trends in Logic, Springer will appear this year and his paper ‘Measurement theory in the context of scientific practice’ is going to be published in Synthese. More information at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Davide-Rizza

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