Beauchemin, Pierre-Hugues and Staley, Kent (2026) Uncertainty: Inquiry without quantification. In: UNSPECIFIED.
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Abstract
A recent proposal for the epistemology of measurement maintains that uncertainty estimates are not mere auxiliaries to but integral to measurement. Yet many measurement results do not include estimates of uncertainty. We defend uncertainty assessment as crucial for measurement by clarifying the epistemological work done by uncertainty inquiries, which need not result in a quantified uncertainty. We illustrate our argument with cases from the history of measurements of the speed of light.
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| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED) | |||||||||
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| Keywords: | measurement, uncertainty, inquiry, speed of light measurements | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Physics |
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| Depositing User: | Kent Staley | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 17 Jun 2026 07:36 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 17 Jun 2026 07:36 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 30213 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Physics |
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| Date: | 16 June 2026 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/30213 |
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