Are There Really Electrons? Experiment and Reality
DOI: 10.1063/1.881975
Discussing the existence of electrons, philosopher of science Ian Hacking has written, “So far as I’m concerned, if you can spray them, then they are real.” He went on to elaborate this view: “We are completely convinced of the reality of electrons when we set out to build—and often enough succeed in building—new kinds of device that use various well‐understood causal properties of electrons to interfere in other more hypothetical parts of nature.”
This article is only available in PDF format
References
1. I. Hacking, Representing and Intervening, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, England (1983), p. 23.
2. Hacking, p. 265.
3. J. J. Thomson, Philos. Mag. 44, 293 (1897).https://doi.org/PHMAA4
4. Lord Kelvin, Nature 56, 84 (1897).https://doi.org/NATUAS
5. R. A. Millikan, Phys. Rev. 32, 349 (1911).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
6. A. Franklin, Historical Studies in Phys. Sci. 11, 185 (1981).
7. W. FairbankJr, A. Franklin, Am. J. Phys. 50, 394 (1982).https://doi.org/AJPIAS
8. R. A. Millikan, The Electron, U. Chicago P., Chicago (1917).
9. R. A. Millikan, Phys. Rev. 2, 109 (1913).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
10. R. M. Barnett et al., Phys. Rev. D 54, 1 (1996).https://doi.org/PRVDAQ
11. B. C. van Fraassen, The Scientific Image, Clarendon P., Oxford, England (1980).
More about the authors
Allan Franklin, University of Colorado, Boulder.
