Particle Metaphysics: A Critical Account of Subatomic RealityMetaphysics, with which, as fate would have it, I have fallen in love but from which I can boast of only a few favours, o?ers two kinds of advantage. The ?rst is this: it can solve the problems thrown up by the enquiry of mind, when it uses reason to spy after the more hidden properties of things. But hope is here all too often disappointed by the outcome. And, on this occasion, too, satisfaction has escaped our eager grasp. [...] The second advantage of metaphysics is more consonant with the nature of the human understanding. It consists [...] in knowing what relation the question has to empirical concepts, upon which all our judgements must at all times be based. To that extent metaphysics is a science of the limits of human reason.[...] Thus, the second advantage of metaphysics is at once the least known and the most important, although it is also an advantage which is only attained at a fairly late stage and after long experience. 1 Immanuel Kant The tradition of the particle concept goes back to traditional metaphysics and ancient philosophy. The idea that matter is made up of microscopic constituent parts stems from ancient atomism. At the very beginnings of modern physics, it was taken up by Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. Newton thought that there are atoms of matter and light, but with the methods of Newtonian mechanics and optics they were beyond the reach of experiments. |
Contents
1 | |
Extending Physical Reality | 41 |
Particle Observation and Measurement | 77 |
Probing Subatomic Structure 125 | 124 |
Measurement and the Unity of Physics | 161 |
Metamorphoses of the Particle Concept | 209 |
WaveParticle Duality 265 | 263 |
Subatomic Reality | 321 |
A Measurement Theory 343 | 342 |
The Effective CrossSection | 351 |
References | 363 |
382 | |
Other editions - View all
Particle Metaphysics: A Critical Account of Subatomic Reality Brigitte Falkenburg No preview available - 2007 |
Particle Metaphysics: A Critical Account of Subatomic Reality Brigitte Falkenburg No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
According analysis assumptions atomic axiomatic background knowledge beam Bohr Bohr's charged particles classical particle classical physics complementarity conservation laws constituent construal correspondence principle cross-section detections double slit dynamic Einstein electron empirical reality empiricism empiricist energy loss entities equation experimental form factors give rise Heisenberg's individual interactions interpretation of quantum light mass matter means measurement results measurement theory mechanics of scattering mereological metaphysical microscope modern physics momentum neutrino non-relativistic nucleon observation particle detector particle physics particle tracks path information photon physical quantities physical theories physicists pointlike polarization position measurements probabilistic level quan quantized quantum domain quantum electrodynamics quantum field theory quantum mechanics quantum phenomena quantum theory quark quasi-classical quasi-particles Rutherford Rutherford scattering scale invariance scattering center scattering events scattering experiments scattering processes scientific realism Sect semantic sense spatial spatio-temporal spin subatomic particles subatomic reality theoretical trajectory uncertainty relation virtual particles wave function wave-particle duality which-way