Instrumentation refers to the use or application of instruments or specialized technologies for observation, measurement, control, or production. In the last sense one even speaks of the instrumentation of a piece of music, meaning its adaptation to being produced or played by a particular set of musical instruments. Technologies in the form of instrumentation have also played a crucial role in the production of human knowledge science prehistory. In all these senses, instrumentation calls for general philosophical reflection, including ethical reflection.

Instrumentation, Ancient and Modern

The usual story about the origins of science cite ancient Greek philosophical speculations such as the prescient hypothesis of Democritus (460–370 B.C.E.) that there must be ultimate small bits of matter, which he termed "atoms," that constitute the most basic things of the world. Plato (428–347 B.C.E.), in opposition, developed an alternative hypothesis of a finite set of ideal geometrical forms...