Search results for "Philosophy of Science"

Einstein's Washington Manuscript on Unified Field Theory

2020

In this note, we point attention to and briefly discuss a curious manuscript of Einstein, composed in 1938 and entitled "Unified Field Theory," the only such writing, published or unpublished, carrying this title without any further specification. Apparently never intended for publication, the manuscript sheds light both on Einstein's modus operandi as well as on the public role of Einstein's later work on a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism.

Euclidean geometry and physical space

2006

It takes a good deal of historical imagination to picture the kinds of debates that accompanied the slow process, which ultimately led to the acceptance of non-Euclidean geometries little more than a century ago. The difficulty stems mainly from our tendency to think of geometry as a branch of pure mathematics rather than as a science with deep empirical roots, the oldest natural science so to speak. For many of us, there is a natural tendency to think of geometry in idealized, Platonic terms. So to gain a sense of how late nineteenth-century authorities debated over the true geometry of physical space, it may help to remember the etymological roots of geometry: “geo” plus “metria” literall…

Indian Slavery, Labor, Evangelization, and Captivity in the Americas: An Annotated Bibliography.

1999

Science and technology in the European periphery: Some historiographical reflections

2008

Monica Azzolini, The Duke and the Stars: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Milan. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2013. Pp. x…

2014

Innovationsschübe durch Außenseiter: Das Beispiel des Amateur-Astronomen William Herschel

1986

Innovatory advances by outsiders: The example of the amateur astronomer William Herschel. — Every scientific experience and perception has been gained from within a particular historical situation constituted by numerous components, both internal and external to a particular science, called praesentabilia (Prasentabilien). They enable and determine the scope and the experiental pale of any given science as well as its way and method of acquiring experience and knowledge. The interaction of such praesentabilia forms, what may be called the Historische Erfahrungsraum (‘historical field of experience’), which each individual and/or (greater/smaller) group shares in respectively. A scientific (…

A partial elucidation of the gauge principle

2008

The elucidation of the gauge principle "is the most pressing problem in current philosophy of physics" said Michael Redhead in 2003. This paper argues for two points that contribute to this elucidation in the context of Yang–Mills theories. (1) Yang–Mills theories, including quantum electrodynamics, form a class. They should be interpreted together. To focus on electrodynamics is potentially misleading. (2) The essential role of gauge and BRST symmetries is to provide a local field theory that can be quantized and would be equivalent to the quantization of the non-local reduced theory. If this is correct, the gauge symmetry is significant, not so much because it implies ontological conseque…

Kant and the scientific study of consciousness.

2010

We argue that Kant’s views about consciousness, the mind—body problem and the status of psychology as a science all differ drastically from the way in which these topics are conjoined in present debates about the prominent idea of a science of consciousness. Kant never used the concept of consciousness in the now dominant sense of phenomenal qualia; his discussions of the mind—body problem center not on the reducibility of mental properties but of substances; and his views about the possibility of psychology as a science did not employ the requirement of a mechanistic explanation, but of a quantification of phenomena. This shows strikingly how deeply philosophical problems and conceptions c…

Astrophysik contra Astronomie

1981

[Astrophysics contra astronomy] means the displacement of astrometry and stellar astronomy as the main and solely conceded branches of astronomy by the new astrophysics. This displacement started with the introduction of spectroscopic and photometric methods of observation in astronomy founded by J. C. F. Zoellner and W. Huggins in the late 1850s. It was Zoellner, too, who gave the methodical and intrumental foundations of the new branch called consciously [Astrophysik] by him, because it gives insight into the [physical constitution] of the celestial bodies - whereas the traditional astronomy (or: astrophysics according to the older meaning) had been studying only the motions of the stars …

Spatial history: railways, uneven development and population change in France and Great Britain, 1850-1914

2011

International audience; A comparative spatial history combining historical narrative, geographical thinking, and spatial analysis of historical data offers new perspectives on railway expansion and its effects in France and Great Britain during the long nineteenth century. Accessible rail transport in the rural regions of both countries opened new economic opportunities in agriculture, extractive industries, and service trades, helping to revitalize rural communities and decrease their rates of out-migration. In France, long-standing economic disparities between the developed north and the less-productive south gradually reduced. These conclusions are based, in part, on the use of historica…