Author: Hasok Chang

Hasok Chang is a historian and philosopher of science whose research asks how scientific knowledge is established, corrected, and extended through practice. He is the Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge and works especially on measurement, evidence, realism, pluralism, chemistry, and physics. Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress reconstructs the practical and philosophical problems behind thermometry, showing how investigators sought dependable standards before a trusted thermometer already existed. Oxford University Press describes the book's method as complementary science, in which historical and philosophical inquiry contributes to present knowledge. The study jointly received the Lakatos Award, an honor Chang later discussed in a public lecture at the London School of Economics. His subsequent books Is Water H2O? and Realism for Realistic People continue this close study of experiments, concepts, and the reasoning that turns measurement into accepted fact.