After Kuhn cast doubt on the usefulness of abstract positivist models by appealing to the history of science, many philosophers have felt compelled to use historical case studies in their analyses. Kuhn, however, did not tell us how to do this. Further, it is not clear exactly what appeals to case studies accomplish. We can frame this issue as a dilemma. On the one hand, if the case is selected because it exempliªes the philosophical point being articulated, then it is not clear that the philosophical claims have been supported, because it could be argued that the historical data was manipulated to ªt the point. On the other hand, if one starts with a case study, it is not clear where to go from there-for it is unreasonable to generalize from one case or even two or three.I will argue that even very good case studies do no philosophical work. They are at best heuristics. At worst, they give the false impression that history is on our side, sort of the history and philosophy of science version of Manifest Destiny. If historical studies are to be useful for philosophical purposes, they must be extended historical studies that contend with the life span of a scientiªc problematic. It is not enough to isolate a single experiment or to look at the activity of a lab under one director. One needs to place the case in the context of a problematic and to explain a problematic in terms of its origins and its fate (Pitt 1992). But even if this were to be accomplished, it is not clear what philosophical work is being done.

Abstract. The question is how do Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEMs) give us access to the nano world? The images these instruments produce, I argue, do not allow us to see atoms in the same way that we see trees. To the extent that SEMs and STMs allow us to see the occupants of the nano world it is by way of metaphorical extension of the concept of "seeing". The more general claim is that changes in scientific instrumentation effect changes in the concepts central to our understanding of scientific results.

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