The contribution of history and philosophy to the conceptual approach of Physics. Old and new puzzles (original) (raw)
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Physics in Perspective, 2018
Physics Is Its History Here is a radical view: in the final analysis, physics cannot be separated from ''the history of physics.'' Physics is its history. This claim appears radical because physicists of each generation inherit a set of problems that they are told urgently need addressing, a set of concepts and instruments with which to address them, and an idea of how to move forward. Physicists are occupied with that task of moving forward and might see no pressing need to understand exactly how they got the set of problems, concepts, and instrument that points the way forward. But knowing how the process of inheritance constrains that path is often key to overcoming otherwise insurmountable obstacles. Furthermore, history of physics cannot be understood without the kind of insight into its nature and significance that one gets from philosophy-both from searching reflection and questioning and from the philosophical texts that best exemplify that kind of hard thinking. This breaks with the usual view that physics, as a scientific endeavor, stands apart from history and philosophy, considered as part of the humanities, or perhaps the social sciences, but not the natural sciences as such. We nevertheless find ample reason to think of physics as integrated with history and philosophy. First of all, until recently, the most influential physicists were steeped in the developments that had preceded their own work and the texts in which their predecessors presented their understanding and its rationale. Newton studied Aristotle, Descartes, and Galileo carefully, as his own writings reveal. James Clerk Maxwell wrote that ''it is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in its nascent state.'' 1 Albert Einstein constantly referred to the work of the great physicists (though sometimes he was casual in his footnotes) as well as to philosophers; as a teenager, he devoured Kant's writings and later called himself a ''disciple of Spinoza.'' In a 1944 letter to the African-American physicist Robert Thornton, Einstein argued that ''a knowledge of the historic and philosophic background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical thought is-in my opinion-the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth.'' 2 Phys. Perspect.
Towards a historical approach to physics education
Atti della Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti : Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, 2021
Modern physics is a complex multiplicity of practices: theoretical, mathematical, experimental and simulation practices. Experimental and simulation practices are related to the pragmatic dimension of a physical theory. Mathematical practices are related to the syntactic dimension of a physical theory, but theoretical practices involve an often neglected semantic dimension. Physics and consequently teaching physics are usually reduced to the syntactic and pragmatic dimensions. Semantic dimension is linked to the conceptualization of the physical reality, to the conception of Nature. By neglecting the semantic dimension, physics is reduced to a pure mathematical game and to technological manipulations. Thus, the cultural aspect of science is lost and physics education is reduced to a mere technical training. This process of de-culturalization of science had its roots in the Enlightenment's turn in physics to free it from theology and metaphysics and had its completion in the post-second-world-war era. I believe we have to recover the cultural aspects of physics to understand it more deeply in its whole complexity. We have to recover all its relationships with other disciplines as philosophy, mathematics, psychology, sociology and other sciences, even theology, which are fundamental to constitute its semantic dimension. Historical approach to physics and physics education is the only way to recover this interdisciplinarity at the roots of the various physical conceptions of Nature. In this way, for example, we can understand that beyond mechanics there is a mechanist conception of Nature, beyond thermodynamics there is a thermodynamical conception of Nature, and beyond electromagnetism there is an electromagnetic conception of Nature. These different conceptions of Nature are not compatible and their historical fight has produced the relativistic, quantum and chaos revolutions in XX century physics. These different conceptions of Nature imply different existential self-understanding of the meaning of mankind in the universe and different ethical perspectives.
A Brief History and Philosophy of Physics
Given the fact that half the world's population is female, there is a notable absence of women in this history. This is largely because women have been systematically excluded from science over the centuries until very recently, with few exceptions. Even when women did make major contributions as part of a larger team in relatively recent times, as was the case of the women "computers" in astronomy at Harvard College Observatory in the late 1800s, usually only the male team leader gained recognition [Rossiter]. One can only mourn the loss to the discipline from the exclusion of other Marie Curies, and work towards encouraging the participation of many more women in the future.
Physics: from the Beginning to Now: History, Philosophy, and Science, Volume I: Classical Mechanics
Amazon, 2020
Physics: from the Beginning to Now: History, Philosophy, and Science, Volume I: Classical Mechanics Physics: from the Beginning to Now, have been attempted to consider historical physics events, but this is not the history of physics. But in this book, it has been so focused on the evolution of physic science to explain the development of ideas leading to physical discoveries. Philosophical arguments have been discussed alongside historical events to make the philosophy of physics ornamental of its scientific content. However, this book cannot be considered as philosophical. A deep understanding of the science of physics, regardless of its historical trends and philosophical attitudes, diminishes the attraction of this fundamental knowledge. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FGK23MK/ref=dbs\_a\_def\_rwt\_bibl\_vppi\_i1
Physics and natural philosophy
Physics Today, 1951
For nearly a century we physicists have complacently thought of ourselves as being the philosophers of nature. While the biologists and astronomers expanded their interminable classifications and the chemist did heavens-knows-what with his grubby beakers, we were, in our own estimation at least, constructing rational pictures of the universe aided by artfully chosen experiments. It is true, of course, that at times these self-consistent and rational pictures did not agree with each other; but, when this happened, we became true philosophers in the Greek sense and in a mist of polemics and sophistry demonstrated that nothing could be more rational than the disagreement which was only apparent after all.
For two reasons, physics occupies a preeminent position among the sciences. On the one hand, due to its recognized position as a fundamental science, and on the other hand, due to the characteristic of its obvious certainty of knowledge. For both reasons it is regarded as the paradigm of scientificity par excellence. With its focus on the issue of epistemic certainty, philosophy of science follows in the footsteps of classical epistemology, and this is also the basis of its 'judicial' pretension vis-à-vis physics. Whereas physics is in a strong competitive relationship to philosophy and epistemology with respect to its position as a fundamental science - even on the subject of cognition, as the pretension of 'reductionism' shows. It is the thematic focus on epistemic certainty itself, however, that becomes the root of a profound epistemological misunderstanding of physics. The reason for this is twofold: first, the idea of epistemic certainty as a criterion of 'd...
Introduction: From Philosophy of Nature to Philosophy of Physics
Logical Empiricism and the Physical Sciences: From Philosophy of Nature to Philosophy of Physics, 2021
Naturphilosophie, or its English counterpart, philosophy of nature, has a long and fascinating history and has undergone significant changes over time. 1 During the 19th and 20th centuries, many forms of philosophy of nature emerged, from monographs of philosophical remarks by physicistsoften written as diversions and philosophically naïve-and the treatises of the German idealists-often ambiguous and scientifically naïve-to the philosophically motivated writings of revolutionary scientists. The logical empiricists' philosophy of nature and science, however, stands out for its ability to synthesize various forms of inquiries: while its roots reach deep into the neo-Kantian "Wissenschaftslehre" of its day, it was framed in the empiricist traditions of English philosophers and scientists of the modern era. It developed both traditions further with the help of Frege's and Russell's logic and amalgamated them with contemporary French thinking about the conventionalist theory and practice of science. (Katherine Dunlop discusses conventionalism in her contribution to this volume, especially with reference to Poincaré and Neurath.) As Hans Reichenbach (1931/1978, 383) claimed in his programmatic pamphlet on philosophy of nature, philosophy of nature constitutes a great triumph of rationalism.. .. However, modern philosophy of nature must also be regarded as a triumph of empiricism.. .. Modern empiricism does not contradict rationalism because knowledge is conceived as a system constructed by reason upon which experience exerts a regulative and selective influence.
Mechanics and Natural Philosophy in History
Encyclopedia
This entry presents a historical view of the meaning attributed to the terms mechanics and natural philosophy, from a hint to ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance to a special focus on the 18th Century, which represents a turning point for the development of modern physics and science in general. Since we are not concerned with the summation of the histories of natural philosophy and mechanics, but only with their interrelations, this makes a detailed description of the two disciplines unnecessary.