The Play of Nature: Experimentation as Performance

oCreaseOs brilliantly exploited theatrical analogy places scientific theorizing back into the wider context of experimental inquiry...His is a genuinely original voice among those post-positivist philosophers of science whose star is clearly rising.O NRobert C. Scharff Attacking positivist and Kantian varieties of philosophy of science in which experimentation takes a backseat to theory, Robert P. Crease develops his conception of the centrality of experimentation via an argumentative analogy with theatrical performances. To establish his program, Crease draws on three nonpositivist strands of recent philosophy: HusserlOs phenomenology to clarify the notion of invariance, DeweyOs pragmatism to make needed revisions in our idea of productive inquiry, and HeideggerOs hermeneutics to formulate a concept of interpretation appropriate to the cultural and historical olifeworldO in which members of a scientific community think and act.