Phallacies in Fysics: Their essential but strictly limited role in the advance of science and human knowledge (1st edition) (original) (raw)
The fact that every generation rewrites history does not mean that the history itself or that the historical record changes all that much, but rather reflects how different groups at different times choose to regard different parts of the historical record and determine which is more important and significant for the present state of science. In other words, what is really significant in the previous history of science is a reflection of then current beliefs, attitudes and paradigms of science. Since the present dominant paradigm of physics is the quantum, the emphasis in the history of physics has been to de-emphasize or neglect any long term historical trends that lead to the alternative of relativity, continuity and the single unified field interpretation of physical reality. This does not reflect a conscious effort made by historians and scholars, but more of a realistic assessment of what is more interesting to the greater number of scientists at any given time. In other words there is no conspiracy to hide the historical truth. However, history can be subconsciously and unintentionally used to promote one scientific worldview as opposed to another. Since the quantum theory is the dominant paradigm in physics, those issues that deal more directly with the opposing worldview of relativity have been unnecessarily downplayed and important parts of history have been ignored and nearly lost. In spite of the importance of general relativity there are far fewer, and the numbers are staggering, histories of the development and philosophy of relativity theory than there are of the development and philosophy of quantum theory. Scientific issues that pertain more to relativity than the quantum are also shortchanged in the historical research and publications that follow from that research. In particular, the emphasis on the historical development of the concepts of space and time which have been considered to be continuous rather than discrete throughout the history of science, have been neglected. Furthermore, since the quantum presents a completely new and original idea that is unique in history, there is no real call to lend it a more historical countenance. Within physics itself, the quantum does not make any reference to the pre-history of individual events in its own realm of action and reaction. Each event is unique to a particular time (instant) and place (location) and that the notion of extended space and time are not absolutely necessary. However, what the longer history of science has well demonstrated is that the general concepts of space and time are essential and crucial to both the past and present development of science, a fact that quantum theory implies could not be true. Also, when the trends to develop and understand the physical nature of space are studied in depth and detail, the development of relativity and even general relativity look as if they were inevitable, a fact which seems at most to be at odds with the development of the quantum point-of-view of reality if not completely anti-quantum since relativity is based on continuity and the quantum is discrete. This view of nature cannot stand the test of time because nature is not two different things; it is one thing and thus necessitates only one fundamental theory to explain physical reality. Since science always moves toward a more theoretical version of physical truth, if the discrete quantum viewpoint does not truly represent the ultimate nature of reality, as now seems highly probable, not only science in the future will change, but how we regard the historical development of science, past and present, will also change to conform to new and coming changes in science. The new attitudes toward the ultimate nature of reality that are now changing science have now led us to the point that the past accepted history of science needs to be rewritten more accurately to better explain the direction that science is now taking and when this is done fundamental phallacies and other incorrect beliefs in both physics and its history emerge.