Download or read book Einstein Popper and the Crisis of theoretical Physics written by Christoph von Mettenheim and published by tredition. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EINSTEIN, POPPER AND THE THEORY OF LIGHT AND MATTER discusses under philosophical, logical and mathematical aspects the theory of light and the problem of explaining gravitation, one of the oldest problems of philosophy and physics. Assuming the cause of gravity to lie in a force of attraction without a material agent would violate fundamental principles of physics. Newton saw that, and he knew that his theory left gravity well described but unexplained. Michael Faraday also saw the problem but could not solve it. Both relied on the ether hypothesis, which was given up at the beginning of the 20th Century in favour of Quantum Theory and the Theory of Relativity. Quantum Theory and the Theory of Relativity, however, rested on serious logical and mathematical mistakes. Max Planck gave no reasons for the individibility of the quantum, and his quantum jump assumed velocity without taking time. Einstein based his theory on a mathematical self-contradiction that remained undiscovered in a whole century. Both theories must be abandoned. In that difficult situation applying Karl Popper ́s theory of science leads to a revival of the ether hypothesis in a different shape. If matter is not distinct from ether but is itself a process composed of ether particles, then their elasticity will explain the phenomena of light, of gravity, of the stability of matter, of the vortex shape of galaxies, and several other phenomena as well.
Download or read book Rethinking Cultural Historical Theory written by Manolis Dafermos and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-17 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an exploration of science in the making. It offers readers the opportunity to critically reflect on the process of development of Vygotsky's research program from the perspective of dialectics, focusing on the dramatic process of building and rebuilding cultural historical theory. Vygotsky's creative and dramatic journey is no less important than the concrete results of his research. An epistemological and historical investigation of the formulation of cultural historical theory sheds light on the process of knowledge production and reveals hidden dimensions of creativity in science.
Download or read book The Trouble with Physics written by Lee Smolin and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2006 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sample Text
Download or read book Karl Popper Science and Enlightenment written by Nicholas Maxwell and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is an idea that just might save the world. It is that science, properly understood, provides us with the methodological key to the salvation of humanity. A version of this idea can be found in the works of Karl Popper. Famously, Popper argued that science cannot verify theories but can only refute them, and this is how science makes progress. Scientists are forced to think up something better, and it is this, according to Popper, that drives science forward.But Nicholas Maxwell finds a flaw in this line of argument. Physicists only ever accept theories that are unified – theories that depict the same laws applying to the range of phenomena to which the theory applies – even though many other empirically more successful disunified theories are always available. This means that science makes a questionable assumption about the universe, namely that all disunified theories are false. Without some such presupposition as this, the whole empirical method of science breaks down.By proposing a new conception of scientific methodology, which can be applied to all worthwhile human endeavours with problematic aims, Maxwell argues for a revolution in academic inquiry to help humanity make progress towards a better, more civilized and enlightened world.
Download or read book Einstein s Unfinished Revolution written by Lee Smolin and published by Knopf Canada. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A daring new vision of the quantum universe, and the scandals controversies, and questions that may illuminate our future--from Canada's leading mind on contemporary physics. Quantum physics is the golden child of modern science. It is the basis of our understanding of atoms, radiation, and so much else, from elementary particles and basic forces to the behaviour of materials. But for a century it has also been the problem child of science, plagued by intense disagreements between its intellectual giants, from Albert Einstein to Stephen Hawking, over the strange paradoxes and implications that seem like the stuff of fantasy. Whether it's Schrödinger's cat--a creature that is simultaneously dead and alive--or a belief that the world does not exist independently of our observations of it, quantum theory is what challenges our fundamental assumptions about our reality. In Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, globally renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin provocatively argues that the problems which have bedeviled quantum physics since its inception are unsolved for the simple reason that the theory is incomplete. There is more, waiting to be discovered. Our task--if we are to have simple answers to our simple questions about the universe we live in--must be to go beyond it to a description of the world on an atomic scale that makes sense. In this vibrant and accessible book, Smolin takes us on a journey through the basics of quantum physics, introducing the stories of the experiments and figures that have transformed the field, before wrestling with the puzzles and conundrums that they present. Along the way, he illuminates the existing theories about the quantum world that might solve these problems, guiding us toward his own vision that embraces common sense realism. If we are to have any hope of completing the revolution that Einstein began nearly a century ago, we must go beyond quantum mechanics as we know it to find a theory that will give us a complete description of nature. In Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, Lee Smolin brings us a step closer to resolving one of the greatest scientific controversies of our age.
Download or read book Einstein in Context written by Mara Beller and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-10-29 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This special issue of Science and Context examines the entire area of scientific inquiry surrounding Einstein, presenting controversies and debates within their contexts.
Download or read book Lost in Math written by Sabine Hossenfelder and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this "provocative" book (New York Times), a contrarian physicist argues that her field's modern obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science. Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse, these "too good to not be true" theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.
Download or read book The Physics of Immortality written by Frank J. Tipler and published by Anchor. This book was released on 1997-09-18 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there a higher power in the universe? What happens to us when we die? Leading physicist Frank J. Tipler tackles these questions and more in an astonishing and profoundly important book that scientifically proves the existence of God and the physical resurrection of the dead.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Popper written by Jeremy Shearmur and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-24 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karl Popper was one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. His criticism of induction and his falsifiability criterion of demarcation between science and non-science were major contributions to the philosophy of science. Popper's broader philosophy of critical rationalism comprised a distinctive philosophy of social science and political theory. His critique of historicism and advocacy of the open society marked him out as a significant philosopher of freedom and reason. This book sets out the historical and intellectual contexts in which Popper worked, and offers an overview and diverse criticisms of his central ideas. The volume brings together contributors with expertise on Popper's work, including people personally associated with Popper (such as Jarvie, Miller, Musgrave, Petersen and Shearmur), specialists on the topics treated (Bradie, Godfrey-Smith and Jackson), and scholars with special interests in aspects of Popper's work (Andersson, Hacohen, Maxwell and Stokes).
Download or read book It Just Fell written by B. A. Mihalchick and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2022-02-24 with total page 63 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The information about the book is not available as of this time.
Download or read book Does an electron have a structure written by Åke Hedberg and published by BoD - Books on Demand. This book was released on 2017-11-06 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The superficial philosophy that believes that the electron lacks content and thus structure, and thus is punctual, has its roots that can be traced back hundred years, as the author sees it. Then founded the positivist philosophy we find in today's physics and other natural sciences. The contents will be destroyed in Heisenberg's and Bohr's philosophy, the so called Copenhagen interpretation where the statistical data and mathematical formulas is all we can lean on. A philosophy Albert Einstein stubbornly criticized his entire life, as we know. Only fuzzy statistics that God plays dice, he meant. This is often the content of any criticism of the Copenhagen interpretation, and it was his. The belief that quantum mechanics is the final truth is a major obstacle to scientific development. Therefore Einstein could not convince Bohr and others with his criticism. There were also some important puzzles missing for this at this time. More sophisticated instruments were required than were available 80-90 years ago. Therefore, it took a long time in the 1980s before an advanced chaos theory could be established. But the established truth about the perfect quantum mechanics prevented an integration with new discoveries and theories. Thus, one has not realized that nature was and is organized not only in the mechanical way that quantum mechanics and wave mechanics and so on assume. What chaos theory using fast computers so graphically and vividly could show. It is thus no coincidence that physics deals with punctual mechanical objects, but is a consequence of a world view, an ideology. In fact, there is nothing in this world that does not have a structure.
Download or read book HOW THE CLIMATE CRISIS CAN BE SOLVED written by Åke Jean Hedberg and published by BoD - Books on Demand. This book was released on 2024-10-25 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The basic thinking error with the usual methods of trying to imitate the fusion processes on the Sun and the other stars is that they consider the Sun as an ordinary ball of gas. A ball filled with hydrogen, helium and many other gases. But it is not like that. It is not gravity and temperature that are decisive. The sun and the other stars are plasma balls or plasma spheres filled with an electrically conducting plasma that swirls, creates sunspots (the sun's own "black holes"), electric currents, that circulate, flame...which causes deuterium, tritium, etc. can constantly clash and collide. And thanks to these ongoing processes also being catalysed, controlled and regulated fusion processes are created that produce the heat and light we can constantly see coming from the sun. We can imitate these processes here on Earth if we learn to control and regulate the fusion with the help of catalysts and computers!
Download or read book Popper s Views on Natural and Social Science written by Simkin and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a straightforward account of Sir Karl Popper's views on scientific methodology ranging from Logik der Forschung in 1934 to A World of Propensities in 1990. Part I covers his treatment of the interrelations between metaphysics and science, the fallacies of induction, the method of conjectures and refutations, evolutionary epistemology, the propensity theory of probability, and the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Part II considers the problems of the social sciences, his critiques of historicism and holistic planning, his defence of piecemeal planning on both scientific and humanist grounds, his method of situational logic based on models that use a 'rationality principle', and the roles of institutions, traditions and history. The book is addressed to those who are interested in general problems of scientific method but find it difficult to get a clear or connected view of Popper's important contributions because these have been published over long intervals and have been subject to misinterpretations.
Download or read book The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge written by Karl Popper and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a letter of 1932, Karl Popper described Die beiden Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie – The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge – as ‘...a child of crises, above all of ...the crisis of physics.’ Finally available in English, it is a major contribution to the philosophy of science, epistemology and twentieth century philosophy generally. The two fundamental problems of knowledge that lie at the centre of the book are the problem of induction, that although we are able to observe only a limited number of particular events, science nevertheless advances unrestricted universal statements; and the problem of demarcation, which asks for a separating line between empirical science and non-science. Popper seeks to solve these two basic problems with his celebrated theory of falsifiability, arguing that the inferences made in science are not inductive but deductive; science does not start with observations and proceed to generalise them but with problems, which it attacks with bold conjectures. The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge is essential reading for anyone interested in Karl Popper, in the history and philosophy of science, and in the methods and theories of science itself.
Download or read book Understanding Space Time written by Robert DiSalle and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-04-27 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting the history of space-time physics, from Newton to Einstein, as a philosophical development DiSalle reflects our increasing understanding of the connections between ideas of space and time and our physical knowledge. He suggests that philosophy's greatest impact on physics has come about, less by the influence of philosophical hypotheses, than by the philosophical analysis of concepts of space, time and motion, and the roles they play in our assumptions about physical objects and physical measurements. This way of thinking leads to interpretations of the work of Newton and Einstein and the connections between them. It also offers ways of looking at old questions about a priori knowledge, the physical interpretation of mathematics, and the nature of conceptual change. Understanding Space-Time will interest readers in philosophy, history and philosophy of science, and physics, as well as readers interested in the relations between physics and philosophy.
Download or read book Karl Popper The Formative Years 1902 1945 written by Malachi Haim Hacohen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-03-04 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2001 biography reassesses philosopher Karl Popper's life and works within the context of interwar Vienna.
Download or read book The Perfect Theory written by Pedro G. Ferreira and published by HMH. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of the best popular accounts of how Einstein and his followers have been trying to explain the universe for decades” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Physicists have been exploring, debating, and questioning the general theory of relativity ever since Albert Einstein first presented it in 1915. This has driven their work to unveil the universe’s surprising secrets even further, and many believe more wonders remain hidden within the theory’s tangle of equations, waiting to be exposed. In this sweeping narrative of science and culture, an astrophysicist brings general relativity to life through the story of the brilliant physicists, mathematicians, and astronomers who have taken up its challenge. For these scientists, the theory has been both a treasure trove and an enigma. Einstein’s theory, which explains the relationships among gravity, space, and time, is possibly the most perfect intellectual achievement of modern physics—yet studying it has always been a controversial endeavor. Relativists were the target of persecution in Hitler’s Germany, hounded in Stalin’s Russia, and disdained in 1950s America. Even today, PhD students are warned that specializing in general relativity will make them unemployable. Still, general relativity has flourished, delivering key insights into our understanding of the origin of time and the evolution of all the stars and galaxies in the cosmos. Its adherents have revealed what lies at the farthest reaches of the universe, shed light on the smallest scales of existence, and explained how the fabric of reality emerges. Dark matter, dark energy, black holes, and string theory are all progeny of Einstein’s theory. In the midst of a momentous transformation in modern physics, as scientists look farther and more clearly into space than ever before, The Perfect Theory exposes the greater relevance of general relativity, showing us where it started, where it has led—and where it can still take us.
