Search

Les experiences du Comte de Rumford ayant pour but de prouver que la chaleur et la lumiere ne sont pas des substances materielles constituent des episodes celebres dans l'histoire des sciences physiques. D'apres l'A., le fait que J. Joule et d'autres se referent a Rumford plusieurs annees plus tard prouve que ses efforts n'ont pas ete inutiles pour le developpement de la science

Rumford’s experiments on the heat generated during the boring of cannons, from which he argued for the “inexhaustible” creation of heat by friction, were cited and used by James Prescott Joule many years later to calculate roughly a mechanical equivalent of heat.2 I shall suggest in what follows that the fact that this work was so cited and used by a later work that itself provided the reference point for even later research is a key factor in the growth of science.

In a book and a series of articles (1977a, 1977b, 1977c, 1978) Harold I. Brown has presented “the new theory of science”, which he characterizes as a “modest historicism”. I propose to examine Brown's contribution to the current debate on scientific method, and to show the inadequacy of his proposals. In particular, I want to concentrate on a fundamental concern of Brown's, namely, rationality.

The existence of light pressure and its magnitude are of great importance for the various 18th century theories about the physical nature of light. This paper examines the observations and experiments conducted in the 18th century to detect and measure this pressure. The reception of these results reveals another scientific strategy besides confirmation and refutation, namely, estimation of parameters. The author proposes the notion of primary evidence, for phenomena that are taken to confirm or refute theories, and problematic phenomena, for phenomena to which accepted theories are applied.

The problem of the critical assessment of theories across paradigms raised by Kuhn is not resolved, it is argued, either by Scheffler's appeal to initial credibility or by Lakatos' conception of a research program. It is argued further that, in these contexts, the notion of reasonable choice by individuals makes no sense. The conclusion supports Feyerabend's position of “epistemological anarchism.”

REVIEW OF RELATED ARTICLES AND REPORTS OF RESEARCH Much has been written of the uses and advantages of individual media, little about their interaction with students and teachers. Much is claimed for the effects of media on learning, but there has been little exploration of such effects through integrated media systems. Media and materials are being developed in greater numbers and variety to supplement and amplify the effects of texts, laboratories, and teacher presentations; they facilitate more effective use of the capacity of teachers to adjust to differences in students and environments. To overlook such means of increasing teacher effectiveness is to shirk one's responsibility as an educator. Meierhenry (~o) noted a need for investigation of the interactions of teacher, student, and medium, with emphasis on learner characteristics. Gilpin (4) had previously observed that " . . . when an important instructional task i s . . . specified [and] an instructional sys tem. . , designed to meet the specifications . . . a baseline will have been established." He also noted that the focus of research should be on criterion specification and measurement. Automation, implicit in any highly systematized

It is argued that the usual account of the discovery and subsequent rejection, or criticism, of Ohm's law is both a misleading and an inadequate explanation. A close logical examination of Ohm's experimental work reveals a conceptual structure quite different from that of the electrical science of his time. As a result of this analysis, it is claimed that the conceptual shift in Ohm's experimental work was the basis for the reaction of his contemporaries.