Philosophical Concepts in Physics: The Historical Relation Between Philosophy and Scientific Theories

ISBN-13: 9780521578233 / Angielski / Miękka / 1998 / 448 str.

James T. Cushing

Opis

This book examines a selection of philosophical issues in the context of specific episodes in the development of physical theories and presents scientific advances within their historical and philosophical contexts. Philosophical considerations have played an essential and ineliminable role in the actual practice of science. The book begins with some necessary introduction to the history of ancient and early modern science, but emphasizes the two great watersheds of twentieth-century physics: relativity and quantum mechanics. At times the term "construction" may seem more appropriate than "discovery" for the way theories have developed and, especially in later chapters, the discussion focuses on the influence of historical, philosophical and even social factors on the form and content of scientific theories.

Recenzje

'Altogether, the book provides a good overview of the basis underlying 3000 years of physical knowledge …'. H Rechenberg, Institute of Physics Publishing

Spis treści

Preface; Part I. The Scientific Enterprise: 1. Ways of knowing; 2. Aristotle and Francis Bacon; 3. Science and metaphysics; Part II. Ancient and Modern Models of the Universe: 4. Observational astronomy and the Ptolemaic model; 5. The Copernican model and Kepler's laws; 6. Galileo on motion; Part III. The Newtonian Universe: 7. Newton's Principia; 8. Newton's law of universal gravitation; 9. Some old questions revisited; Part IV. A Perspective: 10. Galileo's Letter to the Grand Duchess; 11. An overarching Newtonian framework; 12. A view of the world based on science: determinism; Part V. Mechanical Versus Electrodynamical World Views: 13. Models of the aether; 14. Maxwell's theory; 15. The Kaufmann experiments; Part VI. The Theory of Relativity: 16. The background to and essentials of special relativity; 17. Further logical consequences of Einstein's postulates; 18. General relativity and the expanding universe; Part VII. The Quantum World and the Completeness of Quantum Mechanics: 19. The road to quantum mechanics; 20. 'Copenhage' quantum mechanics; 21. Is quantum mechanics complete?; Part VIII. Some Philosophical Lessons from Quantum Mechanics: 22. The EPR paper and Bell's theorem; 23. An alternative version of quantum mechanics; 24. An essential role for historical contingency?; Part IX. A Retrospective: 25. The goals of science and the status of its knowledge; Notes; General references; Bibliography; Author index; Subject index.