On the Dynamical Unity of Instrument and Substance

Abstract

When modern instruments are used in laboratory research, dramatic changes occur at the microscopic level. Depending on the particular instrument employed, a specimen absorbs or emits radiation; alternatively, radiation is scattered, refracted or diffracted. In many studies, a researcher then renders a decisive judgment, whether to declare triumphantly that his/her findings reveal something real about a chemical substance or to refrain from such a judgment for fear of having produced an artificial effect. Both judgments presuppose that artificial conditions of the laboratory can be separated from the real effects. Some commentators charge that any pronouncement of success, that independently-existing properties are revealed from experimental studies, masks the inherent artificiality of all experimental techniques. The infiltration of socially-determined practices in laboratory research is so thoroughly contaminating that all declarations of access to Nature’s independent entities convey more about the scientist’s hubris than it does about the objectivity of techniques.