The sub-title of this symposium is accurate and, in a curious way, promises more than it states: Classical Physicist, Modem Philosopher. Heinrich Hertz, as the con- summate experimentalist of 19th century technique and as brilliant clarifying critic of physical theory of his time, achieved one of the fulfilments but at the same time opened one of the transition points of classical physics. Thus, in his 'popular' lecture 'On the Relations Between Light and Electricity' at Heidelberg in the Fall of 1889, Hertz identified the ether as henceforth the most fundamental problem of physics, as the...
The sub-title of this symposium is accurate and, in a curious way, promises more than it states: Classical Physicist, Modem Philosopher. Heinrich Hert...
Creativity, Psychology, and the History of Science offers for the first time a comprehensive overview of the oeuvre of Howard E. Gruber, who is noted for his contributions both to the psychology of creativity and to the history of science. Gruber is a pioneer in combining history of science and cognitive psychology by means of detailed and meticulous case studies. His award-winning books Darwin on man and The essential Piaget are both modern classics.
The present book includes papers from a wide range of topics. In the...
Creativity, Psychology, and the History of Science offers for the first time a comprehensive overview of the oeuvre of Howard E. G...
This study brings together ideas developed over many years in various lectures in an endeavour to clarify the concept of hermeneutic fore-structure of scientific research. The starting point of my investigations was the outline of an interp- tative approach to the constitution of science's cognitive content. In the late 1970s I was preoccupied with a question that nowadays should be formulated as follows: Is it possible to claim a validity of the hermeneutic view of the "situatedness in a tradition" also for the natural sciences? I was convinced that the negative answer implies a...
This study brings together ideas developed over many years in various lectures in an endeavour to clarify the concept of hermeneutic fore-structure of...
The present volume, compiled in honor of an outstanding historian of science, physicist and exceptional human being, Sam Schweber, is unique in assembling a broad spectrum of positions on the history of science by some of its leading representatives. Readers will find it illuminating to learn how prominent authors judge the current status and the future perspectives of their field. Students will find this volume helpful as a guide in a fragmented field that continues to be dominated by idiosyncratic expertise and that still lacks a methodical canon. The essays were written in response to...
The present volume, compiled in honor of an outstanding historian of science, physicist and exceptional human being, Sam Schweber, is unique in ass...
Professor Joseph Agassi has published his Towards an Historiography of Science in 1963. It received many reviews by notable academics, including Maurice Finocchiaro, Charles Gillispie, Thomas S. Kuhn, Geroge Mora, Nicholas Rescher, and L. Pearce Williams. It is still in use in many courses in the philosophy and history of science. Here it appears in a revised and updated version with responses to these reviews and with many additional chapters, some already classic, others new. They are all paradigms of the author's innovative way of writing fresh and engaging chapters in the history of...
Professor Joseph Agassi has published his Towards an Historiography of Science in 1963. It received many reviews by notable academics, including Ma...
From its founding in 1927 until its dissolution in 1945, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Eugenics (KWI-A) in Berlin-Dahlem transgressed many a boundary; indeed, the transgression of boundaries was in a sense its raison d'etre from the outset. Initially this applied to the boundaries within the disciplinary canon of the human sciences. Even from its basic conception, the institute, centered around the person of its founding director Eugen Fischer (1874- 1967), was to unify anthropology, genetics, and eugenics under one roof. In ke- ing with the understanding...
From its founding in 1927 until its dissolution in 1945, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Eugenics (KWI-A) in Berlin...
Although recent works on Galileo's trial have reached new heights of erudition, documentation, and sophistication, they often exhibit inflated complexities, neglect 400 years of historiography, or make little effort to learn from Galileo. This book strives to avoid such lacunae by judiciously comparing and contrasting the two Galileo affairs, that is, the original controversy over the earth's motion ending with his condemnation by the Inquisition in 1633, and the subsequent controversy over the rightness of that condemnation continuing to our day. The book argues that the Copernican...
Although recent works on Galileo's trial have reached new heights of erudition, documentation, and sophistication, they often exhibit inflated comp...
Emerging disciplines in the border zone between physics and chemistry have 1 attracted the attention of historians of science particularly in the last 20 years. 2 Quantum chemistry, as an offshoot of theoretical chemistry, has recently acquired 3 some importance in the history of chemistry. It is the product of close 1 Cf. Hiebert, E.: Discipline Identi cation in Chemistry and Physics, in: Science in Context, 9(2) (1996), 93 119; Nye, M. J.: Physics and Chemistry: Commensurate or Incommensurate Sciences? in: The Invention of Physical Science, Intersections of Mathematics, Theology and Natural...
Emerging disciplines in the border zone between physics and chemistry have 1 attracted the attention of historians of science particularly in the last...
This book is unusual in many respects. It was written by a prolific author whose tragic untimely death did not allow to finish this and many other of his undertakings. It was assembled from numerous excerpts, notes, and fragments according to his initial plans. Zilberman s legacy still awaits its true discovery and this book is a second installment to it after The Birth of Meaning in Hindu Thought (Kluwer, 1988). Zilberman s treatment of analogy is unique in its approach, scope, and universality for Western philosophical thought. Constantly compared to eastern and especially classical...
This book is unusual in many respects. It was written by a prolific author whose tragic untimely death did not allow to finish this and many other ...
The main theme of this anthology is the unique interaction between mathematics, physics and philosophy during the beginning of the 20th century. In this book, ten renowned philosopher-historians probe insightfully into key conceptual questions of pre-quantum mathematical physics. The result is a diverse yet thematically focused compilation of first class papers on mathematics, physics and philosophy, and a source-book on the interaction between them.
The main theme of this anthology is the unique interaction between mathematics, physics and philosophy during the beginning of the 20th century. In...
