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The Picturability of Micro-Entities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Stephen J. Noren*
Affiliation:
California State University, Long Beach

Abstract

In Patterns of Discovery, [1], and Concept of the Positron, [2], the late N. R. Hanson put forward an intersting and, I believe, essentially sound argument to the effect that, necessarily, micro-entities are “unpicturable.” Hanson's claim is centrally a claim about microreduction, but his use of the term ‘unpicturable’ may be misleading, generating critiques which overplay its implications and its importance. A. M. Paul, in a recent article, [4], has taken Hanson to task in this regard, claiming that the notion of picturability is so cloudy as to render Hanson's whole enterprise unconvincing. In what follows I shall critically discuss Hanson's argument and Paul's analysis and attempt to state a version of it capable of meeting Paul's objections. I will claim that Hanson's use of the term ‘unpicturable’ may be, at worst, infelicitous, and that his thesis concerning micro- or property-reduction remains unaffected by questions concerning what we can or cannot picture.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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References

REFERENCES

[1] Hanson, N. R. Patterns of Discovery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961.Google Scholar
[2] Hanson, N. R. The Concept of the Positron. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[3] Newton, I. Opticks. (4th ed.) New York: Dover Publications, 1952.Google Scholar
[4] Paul, A. M.Hanson on the Unpicturability of Micro-Entities.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 22 (1971): 5053.CrossRefGoogle Scholar