Philosophy
of Physics| Philosophy
of Physics |
In General > s.a. philosophy of
science; physics [ultimate theories]; theory.
* History: Einstein
was influenced by Mach, Hume, and other philosophers; Weyl by Kant and Leibniz;
Boltzmann of course participated in discussions with Mach and others; and the
Vienna Circle (whose main protagonists were Schlick, Carnap,
and Neurath)
was very influential; But more recently, the philosophers' emphasis
has shifted from ontology and epistemology to ethics, and philosophy has become
less directly related to fundamental issues in physics.
* Einstein's view: Physicists
need philosophy, especially at a time when they wuestion the foundations of
physics; It promotes independence of judgment.
* Examples of questions:
(On a general background of philosophy of science) What is 4D Minkowski? How
did it affect our Newtonian views? What
do distributions
in statistical mechanics mean? Is there a measurement problem in quantum mechanics?
Specific Areas and Topics > s.a. cosmology; history
of physics; Holism; Ontology;
paradigms; realism; spacetime.
@ Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics: de Regt BJPS(96)
[role of philosophy in scientific work].
@ Quantum theory: Percival qp/00-in
[John Bell, speakable and unspeakable];
> s.a. foundations of quantum mechanics.
@ Field theory: Teller SHPMP(97)
[essay review]; Lyre SHPMP(04)
[gauge theory, holism and structural realism].
@ Quantum gravity: Zimmermann phy/01,
phy/01, phy/01 [lqg].
@ Related topics: Nicolescu EJST(06)phy [levels
of reality]; > s.a. Epistemology, geometry, inflation,
renormalization, time, uncertainty.
References
@ General: Kosso 97 [II]; d'Espagnat 06 [r PT(07)jun].
@ Determinism and free will: Peres FP(86);
Pankovic PLA(88);
Szabó qp/95;
't Hooft
qp/07 [free
will defined as 'unconstrained initial state'].
@ Physicists: Jeans 43; Bergmann AJP(43),
AJP(43);
Heisenberg 62; Heitler 63; Holton Daed(68); Bunge
ed-71, 73; Toraldo di Francia 81; Wu IJMPA(89);
Howard PT(05)dec
[Einstein].
@ Philosophers: Stebbing 58; Capek 61; Carnap 66; Margenau 78; Torretti
91, 99; Sklar 92; Redhead 95.
@ Philosophy-physics relationship: Rudolph & Stamatescu
ed-94; Cushing 98; Zimmermann phy/01-in;
Svozil phy/04-in
[Feyerabend etc].
@ Metaphysics: Jones 82; Pollard AJP(84); Rosen AJP(86); Scerri AJP(89);
Clifton & Regehr Zyg(90); Stenger 95.
@ Related topics: Gregory 88 [and language]; Stapp qp/95 [moral
values]; Uebel
BJPS(96),
Oberdan BJPS(98)
[Vienna Circle].
"Philosophy of science is of no more use to scientists
than ornithology is to birds" – attributed to R Feynman;
"Philosophy has done science more harm than good" – S Weinberg.
"To tell you the truth, I think most of my colleagues are terrified
of talking to philosophers,
like being caught coming out of a pornographic cinema" –
M Tegmark
"The physicist cannot simply surrender to the philosopher
the critical contemplation
of theoretical foundations;
for he himself knows best and feels more surely where
the shoe pinches" – A Einstein.
Main page – Abbreviations – Journals – Comments – Other
sites – Acknowledgements
Send feedback and suggestions to bombelli at olemiss.edu – Modified
21 jun 2008