Observation et calcul

It need not surprise that Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777), who put "phenomenology" on the philosophical agenda, was acutely aware of the intricacies and limitations ("Schranken") of making observation amenable to quantification and computation. For Lambert, in fact, it are these limitations that provide the epistemological grounding for the quantification of observation and for the manipulation of data. In his everyday scientific practice, Lambert made use of a spectrum of techniques to make phenomena measurable, to make the measurements amenable to further manipulation, using instruments, language, tables, graphs etc. Using two case studies (from hygrometry and astronomy), the very specific configurations of techniques Lambert crafted to give both the phenomena and the theory their due will be illustrated . As an afterthought, to bridge to the present, the similarity between Lambert's hybrid modus procedendi and modern day computer environments for the working scientist (say Maple or Mathematica) must be pointed out.