Download or read book The Mathematical Representation of Physical Reality written by Shahen Hacyan and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the rise of mathematics in physical sciences, beginning with Galileo and Newton and extending to the present day. The book is divided into two parts. The first part gives a brief history of how mathematics was introduced into physics--despite its "unreasonable effectiveness" as famously pointed out by a distinguished physicist--and the criticisms it received from earlier thinkers. The second part takes a more philosophical approach and is intended to shed some light on that mysterious effectiveness. For this purpose, the author reviews the debate between classical philosophers on the existence of innate ideas that allow us to understand the world and also the philosophically based arguments for and against the use of mathematics in physical sciences. In this context, Schopenhauer's conceptions of causality and matter are very pertinent, and their validity is revisited in light of modern physics. The final question addressed is whether the effectiveness of mathematics can be explained by its “existence” in an independent platonic realm, as Gödel believed. The book aims at readers interested in the history and philosophy of physics. It is accessible to those with only a very basic (not professional) knowledge of physics.
Download or read book The Mathematical Representation of Physical Reality written by Shahen Hacyan and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-03-06 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the rise of mathematics in physical sciences, beginning with Galileo and Newton and extending to the present day. The book is divided into two parts. The first part gives a brief history of how mathematics was introduced into physics—despite its "unreasonable effectiveness" as famously pointed out by a distinguished physicist—and the criticisms it received from earlier thinkers. The second part takes a more philosophical approach and is intended to shed some light on that mysterious effectiveness. For this purpose, the author reviews the debate between classical philosophers on the existence of innate ideas that allow us to understand the world and also the philosophically based arguments for and against the use of mathematics in physical sciences. In this context, Schopenhauer’s conceptions of causality and matter are very pertinent, and their validity is revisited in light of modern physics. The final question addressed is whether the effectiveness of mathematics can be explained by its “existence” in an independent platonic realm, as Gödel believed. The book aims at readers interested in the history and philosophy of physics. It is accessible to those with only a very basic (not professional) knowledge of physics.
Download or read book The Concept of Probability in the Mathematical Representation of Reality written by Hans Reichenbach and published by Full Circle. This book was released on 2008 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first English translation of Hans Reichenbach's lucid doctoral thesis sheds new light on how Kant's Critique of Pure Reason was understood in some quarters at the time. The source of several themes in his still influential The Direction of Time, the thesis shows Reichenbach's early focus on the interdependence of physics, probability, and epistemology.
Download or read book The Mathematical Reality written by Alexander Unzicker and published by . This book was released on 2020-01-29 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander Unzicker is a theoretical physicist and writes about elementary questions of natural philosophy. His critique of contemporary physics Bankrupting Physics (Macmillan) received the 'Science Book of the Year' award (German edition 2010). With The Mathematical Reality, Unzicker presents his most fundamental work to date, which is the result of years of study of natural laws and their historical development.The discovery of fundamental laws of nature has influenced the fate of Homo sapiens more than anything else. Has modern physics already understood these laws? Many puzzles formulated by Albert Einstein or Paul Dirac are still unsolved today, in particular the meaning of fundamental constants. In this book, Unzicker contends that a rational description of nature must do without any constants.A methodological and historical analysis shows, however, that the underlying problem of physics is deep, unexpected and fatal: the concepts of space and time themselves, the basis of science since Newton, could be fundamentally inappropriate for the description of reality, although-or precisely because-they are so easily accessible to human perception.A new understanding of reality can only arise from mathematics. By exploring the three-dimensional unitary sphere, which could replace the concepts of space and time, the author presents a mathematical vision that points the way to a new understanding of reality.
Download or read book Physics Structure and Reality written by Jill North and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Physics, Structure, and Reality, Jill North addresses a set of questions that get to the heart of the project of interpreting physics--of figuring out what physics is telling us about the world. How do we figure out the nature of the world from a mathematically formulated physical theory? What do we infer about the world when a physical theory can be mathematically formulated in different ways? North argues that there is a certain notion of structure, implicit in physics and mathematics, to which we should pay careful attention in order to discern what physics is telling us about the nature of reality. North draws lessons for related topics, including the use of coordinate systems in physics, the differences among various formulations of classical mechanics, the nature of spacetime structure, the equivalence of physical theories, and the importance of scientific explanation. Although the book does not explicitly defend scientific realism, instead taking this to be a background assumption, the account provides an indirect case for realism toward our best theories of physics.
Download or read book Neo Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science written by William M.R. Simpson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last two decades have seen two significant trends emerging within the philosophy of science: the rapid development and focus on the philosophy of the specialised sciences, and a resurgence of Aristotelian metaphysics, much of which is concerned with the possibility of emergence, as well as the ontological status and indispensability of dispositions and powers in science. Despite these recent trends, few Aristotelian metaphysicians have engaged directly with the philosophy of the specialised sciences. Additionally, the relationship between fundamental Aristotelian concepts—such as "hylomorphism", "substance", and "faculties"—and contemporary science has yet to receive a critical and systematic treatment. Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science aims to fill this gap in the literature by bringing together essays on the relationship between Aristotelianism and science that cut across interdisciplinary boundaries. The chapters in this volume are divided into two main sections covering the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of the life sciences. Featuring original contributions from distinguished and early-career scholars, this book will be of interest to specialists in analytical metaphysics and the philosophy of science.
Download or read book Logos and Alogon written by Arkady Plotnitsky and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-01-16 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a philosophical study of mathematics, pursued by considering and relating two aspects of mathematical thinking and practice, especially in modern mathematics, which, having emerged around 1800, consolidated around 1900 and extends to our own time, while also tracing both aspects to earlier periods, beginning with the ancient Greek mathematics. The first aspect is conceptual, which characterizes mathematics as the invention of and working with concepts, rather than only by its logical nature. The second, Pythagorean, aspect is grounded, first, in the interplay of geometry and algebra in modern mathematics, and secondly, in the epistemologically most radical form of modern mathematics, designated in this study as radical Pythagorean mathematics. This form of mathematics is defined by the role of that which beyond the limits of thought in mathematical thinking, or in ancient Greek terms, used in the book’s title, an alogon in the logos of mathematics. The outcome of this investigation is a new philosophical and historical understanding of the nature of modern mathematics and mathematics in general. The book is addressed to mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and philosophers and historians of mathematics, and graduate students in these fields.
Download or read book Physical Reality and Mathematical Description written by C.P. Enz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays is intended as a tribute to Josef Maria Jauch on his sixtieth birthd~. Through his scientific work Jauch has justly earned an honored name in the community of theo retical physicists. Through his teaching and a long line of dis tinguished collaborators he has put an imprint on modern mathema tical physics. A number of Jauch's scientific collaborators, friends and admirers have contributed to this collection, and these essays reflect to some extent Jauch's own wide interests in the vast do main of theoretical physics. Josef Maria Jauch was born on 20 September 1914, the son of Josef Alois and Emma (nee Conti) Jauch, in Lucerne, Switzerland. Love of science was aroused in him early in his youth. At the age of twelve he came upon a popular book on astronomy, and an exam ple treated in this book mystified him. It was stated that if a planet travels around a centre of Newtonian attraction with a pe riod T, and if that planet were stopped and left to fall into the centre from any point of the circular orbit, it would arrive at the centre in the time T/I32. Young Josef puzzled about this for several months until he made his first scientific discovery : that this result could be derived from Kepler's third law in a quite elementary way.
Download or read book Confronting The Enigma Of Time written by John R Fanchi and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Newton's classical mechanics, time played the role of a monotonically increasing evolution parameter. Einstein rejected the Newtonian concept and instead identified time as the fourth coordinate of a space-time four-vector. Today, scientists are considering different concepts of time as a means of resolving incompatibilities between relativity and quantum mechanics. Some view time as an emergent property of a system rather than a fundamental property, while others consider two temporal variables. The purpose of this book is to examine the role of time in modern physics so that the reader gains an increased awareness of time and its place in our understanding of nature.
Download or read book Physics for Mathematicians written by Michael Spivak and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 733 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Our Mathematical Universe written by Max Tegmark and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist. Fascinating from first to last—this is a book that has already prompted the attention and admiration of some of the most prominent scientists and mathematicians.
Download or read book The Structure and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics written by R. I. G. Hughes and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important work provides an account of the philosophical foundations of quantum theory that should become a classic text for scientists and nonscientists alike. Hughes offers the first detailed and accessible analysis of the Hilbert-space models used in quantum theory and explains why they are so successful. He goes on to show how the very suitability of Hilbert spaces for modeling the quantum world gives rise to deep problems of interpretation, and makes suggestions about how they can be overcome.
Download or read book Physical Reality Construction or Discovery written by Michael Grodzicki and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-03 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a well-grounded account of the methodology of physics, the structure of physical knowledge and theories, and in particular of the relations between theory and experience. An important feature of the book is that all its essential conclusions are elucidated with the help of representative examples from theoretical, molecular and solid state physics. All young physicists as well as physics teachers will find here valuable insights into the philosophy and tools of their trade.
Download or read book The Principles of Quantum Theory From Planck s Quanta to the Higgs Boson written by Arkady Plotnitsky and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-26 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book considers foundational thinking in quantum theory, focusing on the role the fundamental principles and principle thinking there, including thinking that leads to the invention of new principles, which is, the book contends, one of the ultimate achievements of theoretical thinking in physics and beyond. The focus on principles, prominent during the rise and in the immediate aftermath of quantum theory, has been uncommon in more recent discussions and debates concerning it. The book argues, however, that exploring the fundamental principles and principle thinking is exceptionally helpful in addressing the key issues at stake in quantum foundations and the seemingly interminable debates concerning them. Principle thinking led to major breakthroughs throughout the history of quantum theory, beginning with the old quantum theory and quantum mechanics, the first definitive quantum theory, which it remains within its proper (nonrelativistic) scope. It has, the book also argues, been equally important in quantum field theory, which has been the frontier of quantum theory for quite a while now, and more recently, in quantum information theory, where principle thinking was given new prominence. The approach allows the book to develop a new understanding of both the history and philosophy of quantum theory, from Planck’s quantum to the Higgs boson, and beyond, and of the thinking the key founding figures, such as Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Dirac, as well as some among more recent theorists. The book also extensively considers the nature of quantum probability, and contains a new interpretation of quantum mechanics, “the statistical Copenhagen interpretation.” Overall, the book’s argument is guided by what Heisenberg called “the spirit of Copenhagen,” which is defined by three great divorces from the preceding foundational thinking in physics—reality from realism, probability from causality, and locality from relativity—and defined the fundamental principles of quantum theory accordingly.
Download or read book Reality Without Realism written by Arkady Plotnitsky and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-01 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents quantum theory as a theory based on new relationships among matter, thought, and experimental technology, as against those previously found in physics, relationships that also redefine those between mathematics and physics in quantum theory. The argument of the book is based on its title concept, reality without realism (RWR), and in the corresponding view, the RWR view, of quantum theory. The book considers, from this perspective, the thinking of Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Dirac, with the aim of bringing together the philosophy and history of quantum theory. With quantum theory, the book argues, the architecture of thought in theoretical physics was radically changed by the irreducible role of experimental technology in the constitution of physical phenomena, accordingly, no longer defined independently by matter alone, as they were in classical physics or relativity. Or so it appeared. For, quantum theory, the book further argues, made us realize that experimental technology, beginning with that of our bodies, irreducibly shapes all physical phenomena, and thus makes us rethink the relationships among matter, thought, and technology in all of physics.
Download or read book Infinitesimal Differences written by Ursula Goldenbaum and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2008-11-03 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays offer a unified and comprehensive view of 17th century mathematical and metaphysical disputes over status of infinitesimals, particularly the question whether they were real or mere fictions. Leibniz's development of the calculus and his understanding of its metaphysical foundation are taken as both a point of departure and a frame of reference for the 17th century discussions of infinitesimals, that involved Hobbes, Wallis, Newton, Bernoulli, Hermann, and Nieuwentijt. Although the calculus was undoubtedly successful in mathematical practice, it remained controversial because its procedures seemed to lack an adequate metaphysical or methodological justification. The topic is also of philosophical interest, because Leibniz freely employed the language of infinitesimal quantities in the foundations of his dynamics and theory of forces. Thus, philosophical disputes over the Leibnizian science of bodies naturally involve questions about the nature of infinitesimals. The volume also includes newly discovered Leibnizian marginalia in the mathematical writings of Hobbes.
Download or read book Newton s Scientific and Philosophical Legacy written by Paul B. Scheurer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains the Proceedings of the International Colloqui um "Newton's Scientific and Philosophical Legacy", that was held at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands) from June 9th to 12th 1987 to celebrate the Tercentenary of the publication of Newton's Philo sophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1667). Although 1987 was a busy year for Newton scholars, we were happy that five of most prom inent among them were able to come to Nijmegen and speak on the vari ous aspects of Newton's thought. They are the Professors I. Bernard Cohen (Harvard), Gale Christianson (Indiana State), B.J. Dobbs (Northwestern), Richard H. Popkin (UCLA) and Mordechai Feingold (Boston University). No doubt, recent scholarship has put Newton's genius in a quite different perspective from the one that had come to make up what may be called Newtonian mythology. Although his achievements in the areas of mechanics, mathematics, and optics remain indisputed, Newton's scientific efforts were apparently entirely subordi nate to his religious beliefs. This volume has been divided into four parts, preceded by a Pream ble in which Prof. Christianson offers a vivid portrait of Newton as a per son. The first part deals with the science of Newton as he himself under stood that term. The second part considers the influence of Newton's work on later scientific developments. The third part deals primarily with the question of the methodological influence of Newton, and the last part with his more philosophical legacy. Two editorial remarks are due.
