My talk gives a short account of causation in physics and of the way in which the term "observation" is used in astroparticle physics, regarding the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Then I discuss the causal features of the key model of cosmic messenger particles. The model is in accordance with Salmon’s conserved quantity account of causality but has additional probabilistic features, due to the...
My talk reevaluates the distinction between experiment and observation. I first argue that to get clear on what role observation plays in the generation of scientific knowledge, we need to distinguish “experiential observation” as a concept closely connected to experience from “observation” in a technical sense and from “field observation”, as a concept that reasonably contrasts with...
