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Author: Gualtiero Piccinini
Title: First Person Data, Publicity and Self-Measurement
Publication Info: Ann Arbor, MI: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library
October 2009
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Source: First Person Data, Publicity and Self-Measurement
Gualtiero Piccinini

vol. 9, no. 9, October 2009
Abstract: First-person data have been both condemned and hailed because of their alleged privacy. Critics argue that science must be based on public evidence: since first-person data are private, they should be banned from science. Apologists reply that first-person data are necessary for understanding the mind: since first-person data are private, scientists must be allowed to use private evidence. I argue that both views rest on a false premise. In psychology and neuroscience, the subjects issuing first-person reports and other sources of first-person data play the epistemic role of a (self-) measuring instrument. Data from measuring instruments are public and can be validated by public methods. Therefore, first-person data are as public as other scientific data: their use in science is legitimate, in accordance with standard scientific methodology.
Keywords:
consciousness
first-person data
measurement
methodology of science
privacy
psychology
publicity
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0009.009
PDF: Link to full PDF [334kb ]

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