Download or read book Physics and Philosophy Volume 4 written by Paul K. Feyerabend and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-17 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of the writings of Paul Feyerabend is focused on his philosophy of quantum physics, the hotbed of the key issues of his most debated ideas. Written between 1948 and 1970, these writings come from his first and most productive period. These early works are important for two main reasons. First, they document Feyerabend's deep concern with the philosophical implications of quantum physics and its interpretations. These ideas were paid less attention in the following two decades. Second, the writings provide the crucial background for Feyerabend's critiques of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. Although rarely considered by scholars, Feyerabend's early work culminated in the first version of Against Method. These writings guided him on all the key issues of his most well-known and debated theses, such as the incommensurability thesis, the principles of proliferation and tenacity, and his particular version of relativism, and more specifically on quantum mechanics.
Download or read book Physics and Philosophy written by Werner Heisenberg and published by Penguin Books, Limited (UK). This book was released on 2000 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heisenberg explains the central ideas of the quantum revolution, and his uncertainty principle. He reveals how words can lose their meaning in the world of relativity and quantum physics, with philosophical implications for the nature of reality.
Download or read book Philosophy of Physics written by Tim Maudlin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophical foundations of the physics of space-time This concise book introduces nonphysicists to the core philosophical issues surrounding the nature and structure of space and time, and is also an ideal resource for physicists interested in the conceptual foundations of space-time theory. Tim Maudlin's broad historical overview examines Aristotelian and Newtonian accounts of space and time, and traces how Galileo's conceptions of relativity and space-time led to Einstein's special and general theories of relativity. Maudlin explains special relativity with enough detail to solve concrete physical problems while presenting general relativity in more qualitative terms. Additional topics include the Twins Paradox, the physical aspects of the Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction, the constancy of the speed of light, time travel, the direction of time, and more. Introduces nonphysicists to the philosophical foundations of space-time theory Provides a broad historical overview, from Aristotle to Einstein Explains special relativity geometrically, emphasizing the intrinsic structure of space-time Covers the Twins Paradox, Galilean relativity, time travel, and more Requires only basic algebra and no formal knowledge of physics
Download or read book Philosophy of Physics written by Tim Maudlin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sophisticated and original introduction to the philosophy of quantum mechanics from one of the world’s leading philosophers of physics In this book, Tim Maudlin, one of the world’s leading philosophers of physics, offers a sophisticated, original introduction to the philosophy of quantum mechanics. The briefest, clearest, and most refined account of his influential approach to the subject, the book will be invaluable to all students of philosophy and physics. Quantum mechanics holds a unique place in the history of physics. It has produced the most accurate predictions of any scientific theory, but, more astonishing, there has never been any agreement about what the theory implies about physical reality. Maudlin argues that the very term “quantum theory” is a misnomer. A proper physical theory should clearly describe what is there and what it does—yet standard textbooks present quantum mechanics as a predictive recipe in search of a physical theory. In contrast, Maudlin explores three proper theories that recover the quantum predictions: the indeterministic wavefunction collapse theory of Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber; the deterministic particle theory of deBroglie and Bohm; and the conceptually challenging Many Worlds theory of Everett. Each offers a radically different proposal for the nature of physical reality, but Maudlin shows that none of them are what they are generally taken to be.
Download or read book Grete Hermann Between Physics and Philosophy written by Elise Crull and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grete Hermann (1901-1984) was a pupil of mathematical physicist Emmy Noether, follower and co-worker of neo-Kantian philosopher Leonard Nelson, and an important intellectual figure in post-war German social democracy. She is best known for her work on the philosophy of modern physics in the 1930s, some of which emerged from intense discussions with Heisenberg and Weizsäcker in Leipzig. Hermann’s aim was to counter the threat to the Kantian notion of causality coming from quantum mechanics. She also discussed in depth the question of ‘hidden variables’ (including the first critique of von Neumann’s alleged impossibility proof) and provided an extensive analysis of Bohr’s notion of complementarity. This volume includes translations of Hermann’s two most important essays on this topic: one hitherto unpublished and one translated here into English for the first time. It also brings together recent scholarly contributions by historians and philosophers of science, physicists, and philosophers and educators following in Hermann’s steps. Hermann's work places her in the first rank among philosophers who wrote about modern physics in the first half of the last century. Those interested in the many fields to which she contributed will find here a comprehensive discussion of her philosophy of physics that places it in the context of her wider work.
Download or read book Writings on Physics and Philosophy written by Wolfgang Pauli and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1994-09-27 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wolfgang Pauli was not only a Nobel laureate and one of the creators of modern physics, but also eminent philosopher of modern science. In his essays he writes about space, time and causality, symmetry and the exclusion principle, but also about the role of the unconscious in modern science.
Download or read book Physics and Philosophy written by Paul Feyerabend and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First comprehensive collection of Feyerabend's philosophy of quantum physics, the hotbed of all key issues of his most debated ideas.
Download or read book The Ontology of Spacetime written by and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2006-07-10 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains selected papers from the First International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime. Its fourteen chapters address two main questions: first, what is the current status of the substantivalism/relationalism debate, and second, what about the prospects of presentism and becoming within present-day physics and its philosophy? The overall tenor of the four chapters of the book’s first part is that the prospects of spacetime substantivalism are bleak, although different possible positions remain with respect to the ontological status of spacetime. Part II and Part III of the book are devoted to presentism, eternalism, and becoming, from two different perspectives. In the six chapters of Part II it is argued, in different ways, that relativity theory does not have essential consequences for these issues. It certainly is true that the structure of time is different, according to relativity theory, from the one in classical theory. But that does not mean that a decision is forced between presentism and eternalism, or that becoming has proved to be an impossible concept. It may even be asked whether presentism and eternalism really offer different ontological perspectives at all. The writers of the last four chapters, in Part III, disagree. They argue that relativity theory is incompatible with becoming and presentism. Several of them come up with proposals to go beyond relativity, in order to restore the prospects of presentism. · Space and time in present-day physics and philosophy · Introduction from scratch of the debates surrounding time · Broad spectrum of approaches, coherently represented
Download or read book Philosophy in the Modern World written by Anthony Kenny and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the concluding volume of Sir Anthony Kenny's monumental four-volume history of philosophy, the first major single-author narrative history to appear for several decades.Here Kenny tells the fascinating story of the development of philosophy in the modern world, from the early nineteenth century to the end of the millennium. Alongside extraordinary scientific advances, cultural changes, and political upheavals, the last two centuries have seen some of the mostintriguing and original developments in philosophical thinking, which have transformed our understanding of ourselves and our world. In the first part of the book, Kenny offers a lively narrative introducing the major thinkers in their historical context. Among those we meet are the great figures ofcontinental European philosophy, from Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche to Heidegger, Sartre, and Derrida; the Pragmatists such as C.S. Pierce and William James; Marx, Darwin, and Freud, the non-philosophers; and Wittgenstein and Russell, friends and colleagues who set the agenda for analyticphilosophy in the twentieth century. Kenny then proceeds to guide the reader lucidly through the nine main areas of philosophical work in the period, offering a serious engagement with ideas and arguments about logic, language, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, politics, and theexistence of God.
Download or read book Philosophy in an Age of Science written by Hilary Putnam and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-17 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hilary Putnam's unceasing self-criticism has led to the frequent changes of mind he is famous for, but his thinking is also marked by considerable continuity. A simultaneous interest in science and ethicsÑunusual in the current climate of contentionÑhas long characterized his thought. In Philosophy in an Age of Science, Putnam collects his papers for publicationÑhis first volume in almost two decades. Mario De Caro and David Macarthur's introduction identifies central themes to help the reader negotiate between Putnam past and Putnam present: his critique of logical positivism; his enduring aspiration to be realist about rational normativity; his anti-essentialism about a range of central philosophical notions; his reconciliation of the scientific worldview and the humanistic tradition; and his movement from reductive scientific naturalism to liberal naturalism. Putnam returns here to some of his first enthusiasms in philosophy, such as logic, mathematics, and quantum mechanics. The reader is given a glimpse, too, of ideas currently in development on the subject of perception. Putnam's work, contributing to a broad range of philosophical inquiry, has been said to represent a Òhistory of recent philosophy in outline.Ó Here it also delineates a possible future.
Download or read book The Philosophy Behind Physics written by Thomas A. Brody and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Brody had one of the most powerful and wide-ranging intellects of his generation. Although primarily a physicist who worked on statistical prob lems in nuclear physics, on probability theory and on computational physics he had an extensive knowledge of the philosophy of science and of philosophy, and was fluent in many languages. He is well-known among physicists for the Brody-Moshinsky transformation but his extensive work on probability and on the philosophy of science remained almost unknown. This was because the originality of his ideas entailed many lengthy battles with uncomprehending referees, and he frequently published in Mexican journals of limited circula tion. In addition, his strongly critical spirit inhibited his willingness to publish his ideas. He was always most concerned by the very unsatisfactory situation in the philosophy of physics, that is largely due to the generally poor knowledge that physicists and philosophers have of each other's disciplines. Philosophers of science write at length about physics without any detailed first-hand knowl edge of how research is actually carried out. Physicists, for their part, often implicitly assume naive or erroneous philosophical ideas, and this often hinders their scientific work, besides spreading further confusion if they try to give an account of what they are doing.
Download or read book Information and the Nature of Reality written by Paul Davies and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-15 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From quantum to biological and digital, here eminent scientists, philosophers and theologians chart various aspects of information.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Quantum Physics written by Cord Friebe and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-06-21 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a thorough and up-to-date introduction to the philosophy of quantum physics. Although quantum theory is renowned for its spectacular empirical successes, controversial discussion about how it should be understood continue to rage today. In this volume, the authors provide an overview of its numerous philosophical challenges: Do quantum objects violate the principle of causality? Are particles of the same type indistinguishable and therefore not individual entities? Do quantum objects retain their identity over time? How does a compound quantum system relate to its parts? These questions are answered here within different interpretational approaches to quantum theory. Finally, moving to Quantum Field Theory, we find that the problem of non-locality is exacerbated. Philosophy of quantum physics is aimed at philosophers with an interest in physics, while also serving to familiarize physicists with many of the essential philosophical questions of their subject.
Download or read book Physics and Philosophy written by Paul Feyerabend and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First comprehensive collection of Feyerabend's philosophy of quantum physics, the hotbed of all key issues of his most debated ideas.
Download or read book Compendium of Quantum Physics written by Daniel Greenberger and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-25 with total page 901 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions by leading quantum physicists, philosophers and historians, this comprehensive A-to-Z of quantum physics provides a lucid understanding of key concepts of quantum theory and experiment. It covers technical and interpretational aspects alike, and includes both traditional and new concepts, making it an indispensable resource for concise, up-to-date information about the many facets of quantum physics.
Download or read book Symmetry Structure and Spacetime written by Dean Rickles and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2008 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Rickles considers several interpretative difficulties raised by gauge-type symmetries (those that correspond to no change in physical state). The ubiquity of such symmetries in modern physics renders them an urgent topic in philosophy of physics. Rickles focuses on spacetime physics, and in particular classical and quantum general relativity. Here the problems posed are at their most pathological, involving the apparent disappearance of spacetime! Rickles argues that both traditional ontological positions should be replaced by a structuralist account according to which relational structure is what the physics is about. · Unified treatment of gauge symmetries and their relationship to ontology in physics · Brings philosophy of space and time into step with developments in modern physics · Argues against the received view on the implications of symmetries in physics · Provides elementary treatments of technical issues · Illustrates a novel defense of structuralism
Download or read book Cosmology Physics and Philosophy written by Benjamin Gal-Or and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: by Sir Karl Popper This is a great book, and an exciting book. I say so even though I happen to dis agree with the author in many minor points and one or two major points. Some of the minor points are merely terminological, and therefore very minor. I dislike the term 'dialectic', because of its use since Hegel and Marx; and I dislike the term 'gravitism', perhaps without a good reason. Thus I dislike the name which Professor Gal-Or has given to his theory. But the theory seems to me a great and a very beauti ful theory, so far as I can judge. Other minor points of disagreement are connected with Gal-Or's original and remarkable views of the great philosophers, including Spinoza and Kant. A major point of disagreement is that Gal-Or, following Einstein, is a scientific determinist, while I cannot but regard determinism as a modem super stition. Of course, he may be right and I may be completely mistaken. I mention these critical points rather in order to emphasize how strongly I am impressed by Professor Gal-Or's great book. Even in the very unlikely case that, wherever we disagree, he should be in the wrong and I right, even if that should be the case (which is improbable in the extreme), it would remain a great book: readable, worth reading and enlightening; with a most fascinating cosmological story of time, expansion, and gravitation.
