title: An experimenter's gotta do what an experimenter's gotta do--but how?
abstract: The aim of this essay is to discuss the relation between experimenter and instruments in terms of how they interact: how the instrument requires a particular performance from the experimenter, how the experimenter requires a particular performance from the instrument, how a particular purpose of the experimental procedures requires a particular performance from the experimenter and the instrument, and, finally, how both-experimenter and instrument in their interplay-are subject to standards that can be related to social, political, or epistemological criteria. The author draws on his own experiences in analyzing experiments using the replication method.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physik und Chemie und ihre Didaktik, Universität Flensburg, 24943 Flensburg, Germany. peter.heering@uni-flensburg.de
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Heering
mesh_terms: D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D010684:Philosophy; D011057:Politics; D012107:Research Design; D012586:Science / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012945:Social Values