The Philosophy of PhysicsThis magisterial study of the philosophy of physics both introduces the subject to the nonspecialist and contains many original and important contributions for professionals in the area. Modern physics was born as a part of philosophy and has retained to this day a properly philosophical concern for the clarity and coherence of ideas. Any introduction to the philosophy of physics must therefore focus on the conceptual development of physics itself. This book pursues that development from Galileo and Newton through Maxwell and Boltzmann to Einstein and the founders of quantum mechanics. There is also discussion of important philosophers of physics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and of twentieth century debates. |
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Contents
The Transformation of Natural Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century | 1 |
11 Mathematics and Experiment | 2 |
12 Aristotelian Principles | 8 |
13 Modern Matter | 13 |
14 Galileo on Motion | 20 |
15 Modeling and Measuring | 30 |
152 Leibniz and the Conservation of Force | 33 |
153 R0mer and the Speed of Light | 36 |
Relativity | 249 |
51 Einsteins Physics of Principles | 250 |
52 Minkowskis Spacetime | 260 |
53 Philosophical Problems of Special Relativity | 271 |
532 Simultaneity in a Single Frame28 | 273 |
533 Twins Who Differ in Age | 277 |
534 Kinematical Determinism | 280 |
535 The Quantities We Call Mass | 283 |
Newton | 41 |
21 Mass and Force | 42 |
22 Space and Time | 50 |
23 Universal Gravitation | 57 |
24 Rules of Philosophy | 69 |
25 Newtonian Science | 75 |
252 Central Forces | 80 |
253 Analytical Mechanics | 84 |
Kant | 97 |
31 Leibniz and Berkeley on the Scope of Mathematical Physics | 98 |
312 Mentalism and Positivism | 101 |
32 Kants Road to Critical Philosophy | 104 |
33 Kant on Geometry Space and Quantity | 113 |
34 The Web of Nature | 120 |
342 Conservation of Matter | 122 |
343 Causality | 128 |
344 Interaction | 134 |
35 The Ideas of Reason and the Advancement of Science | 138 |
The Rich Nineteenth Century | 147 |
412 The Proliferation of Geometries and Kleins Erlangen Program | 152 |
413 Riemann on the Foundations of Geometry | 157 |
42 Fields | 168 |
43 Heat and Chance | 180 |
431 Heat as Motion | 181 |
432 The Concept of Entropy | 187 |
433 Molecular Chances | 195 |
434 TimeReversible Laws for TimeDirected Phenomena? | 205 |
44 Philosophers | 215 |
441 William Whewell 17941866 | 216 |
442 Charles Sanders Peirce 18391914 | 222 |
443 Ernst Mach 18381916 | 234 |
444 Pierre Duhem 18611916 | 242 |
54 Gravitation as Geometry | 289 |
55 Relativistic Cosmology | 299 |
Quantum Mechanics | 307 |
61 Background | 309 |
612 Einstein on the Absorption and Emission of Radiation | 313 |
613 Virtual Oscillators | 316 |
614 On Spin Statistics and the Exclusion Principle | 318 |
62 The Constitution of Quantum Mechanics | 321 |
622 Wave Mechanics | 325 |
623 The Equivalence of Matrix and Wave Mechanics | 329 |
624 Interpretation | 331 |
625 Quantum Mechanics in Hilbert Space | 336 |
626 Heisenbergs Indeterminacy Relations | 348 |
63 Philosophical Problems | 349 |
632 The Measurement Problem | 355 |
64 MetaPhysical Ventures | 367 |
641 Complementarity | 368 |
642 Hidden Variables | 373 |
643 Quantum Logic | 378 |
644 Many Worlds | 387 |
65 A Note on Relativistic Quantum Theories | 393 |
Perspectives and Reflections | 398 |
72 Laws and Patterns | 405 |
73 Rupture and Continuity | 420 |
74 Grasping the Facts | 431 |
Supplements | 443 |
On Lattices | 453 |
Terms from Topology | 455 |
458 | |
493 | |
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