Norman Robert Campbell

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This article is about the British physicist and philosopher of science. For the Canadian television director and producer, see Norman Campbell.

Norman Robert Campbell (1880–1949) was an English physicist and philosopher of science. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a fellow at Cambridge in 1902. He was also a research assistant at the Cavendish Laboratory under the direction of J. J. Thomson. He became an honorary fellow in physics research at Leeds University in 1913, then worked from 1919 to 1944 as a member of the research staff at General Electric in London.

While respected as a specialist in physics research and the philosophical underpinnings of science, Campbell became best known as a popularizer of scientific topics. For intance, his 1921 book, What Is Science?, explained difficult concepts, such as the theory of measurement and the relationship of experimental science and mathematics, in terms comprehensible to a wide audience. Campbell had a particular regard for the ideas and teaching ability of Michael Faraday.

Other publications by Campbell included Modern Electrical Theory (1907 with supplementary chapters 1921-23), The Principles of Electricity (1912) and An Account of the Principles of Measurement and Calculation (1928). His most important work on the philosophy of science was his Foundations of Science: The Philosophy of Theory and Experiment, first published as Physics: The Elements in 1919 with a second edition appearing posthumously in 1957. In this book Campbell developed his thesis that a critical analysis of science might not require any philosophy at all, but that an investigation of the meaning of reality and truth in science as opposed to metaphysics might be fruitful. Campbell believed that what might be considered "truth" in the realm of science might not be applicable at all in other fields.

Campbell considered that the fundamental function of a scientific theory was to develop and explain laws, defined as uniformities discovered by hypothesis, observation and experiment and verifiable from experience. He also maintained that, to be useful, such laws should display some analogy to other known laws developed by the scientific method.

[edit] References

• Gateway to the Great Books, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1963, volume 9, pp. 202-38

[edit] External links

• Modern Electrical Theory by Norman Robert Campbell, 1907 edition, Cambridge University Press
• What is Science ? by Norman Robert Campbell, 1921 edition, London : Methuen & Co. ltd.
• Modern electrical theory; supplementary chapters by Norman Robert Campbell 1921 edition, Cambridge University Press
• Theory Construction: The Work of Norman Robert Campbell by Gerd Buchdahl, Isis, volume 55, number 2 (June, 1964), pp. 151-62 Introduction available freely, full text requires login.
• Ideas for a Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Natural Sciences by Joseph J. Kockelmans, "Norman Robert Campbell", Kluwer Academic Publishers 1993, pp. 31-33ISBN 0-7923-2364-5 Registration and search on "Norman Robert Campbell" may be required.