Publications by Year: 2011

2011
Arabatzis T. Review of J. Canales, A Tenth of a Second: A History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009). Isis [Internet]. 2011;102(4):774-775. Publisher's Version 2011a
Arabatzis T. Electron. In: S. Azzouni et al (eds), Eine Naturgeschichte für das 21. Jahrhundert : hommage à, zu Ehren von, in honor of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger. Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science; 2011. pp. 231-232. 2011b
Arabatzis T. On the Historicity of Scientific Objects. Erkenntnis [Internet]. 2011;75(3):377-390. Publisher's VersionAbstract
The historical variation of scientific knowledge has lent itself to the development of historical epistemology, which attempts to historicize the origin and establishment of knowledge claims. The questions I address in this paper revolve around the historicity of the objects of those claims: How and why do new scientific objects appear? What exactly comes into being in such cases? Do scientific objects evolve over time and in what ways? I put forward and defend two theses: First, the ontology of science is so rich and variegated that there are no universally valid answers to these questions. Second, we need a pluralist account of scientific objects, a pluralist metaphysics that can do justice to their rich diversity and their various modes of being and becoming. I then focus on hidden objects, which are supposed to be part of the permanent furniture of the universe, and I discuss their birth and historicity: They emerge when various phenomena coalesce as manifestations of a single hidden cause and their representations change over time. Finally, I examine the conditions under which an evolving representation may still refer to the same object and I illustrate my argument drawing upon the early history of electrons.
2011c