carefully explores the role of living things in science by way of some famous episodes, from Galvani鈥檚 experiments with frogs鈥� legs to Rosemary and Peter Grant鈥檚 studies of finches in the Galapagos. What鈥檚 novel is that he arranges the studies according to the logical principles of scientific reasoning. From Harr茅鈥檚 analytical perspective, living organisms, like the canary in the coal mine, can serve as 鈥渋nstruments鈥� 鈥� as measuring devices, say, causally related to the real world. But organisms can also become 鈥渁pparatus鈥�, and act as analogies or models related conceptually to the world. Thus Pavlov鈥檚 ill-fated dogs were surgically reshaped into pieces of scientific apparatus, while the cat in Schr枚dinger鈥檚 thought experiment had a lucky escape: being imaginary, it could only ever be 鈥渋maginarily鈥� dead. For Harr茅, both serve as knowledge-generating apparatus in the powerful logic of science.
OUP