Physics Needs Philosophy. Philosophy Needs Physics
Keywords:
Philosophy of Physics, Aristotle, Popper, Kuhn
Abstract
Contrary to claims about the irrelevance of philosophy for science, I argue that philosophy has had, and still has, far more influence on physics than is commonly assumed. I maintain that the current anti-philosophical ideology has had damaging effects on the fertility of science. I also suggest that recent important empirical results, such as the detection of the Higgs particle and gravitational waves, and the failure to detect supersymmetry where many expected to find it, question the validity of certain philosophical assumptions common among theoretical physicists, inviting us to engage in a clearer philosophical reflection on scientific method.
References
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Carnap, Rudolf (1932) «Überwindung der Metaphysik durch Logische Analyse der Sprache». Erkenntnis 2: pp. 10–31) (English translation «The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language». En: Sarkar, S. (ed.) Logical Empiricism at Its Peak: Schlick, Carnap, and Neurath. Nueva York: Garland Pub., 1996).
Dawid, Richard (2013). String Theory and the Scientific Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139342513
Einstein, Aalbert (1986). «Letter to Robert A. Thornton, 7 December 1944. EA 61-574». En: The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hawking, Stephen (2012). The Grand Design. Nueva York: Bantam.
Heidegger, Martin (1967). Sein und Zeit. Tubinga: Niemeyer.
Heisenberg, Werner (1925). «Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen». Zeitschrift fur Physik 33, no. 1: pp. 879–893. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01328377
Howard, Don (1994). «‘A kind of vessel in which the struggle for eternal truth is played out’—Albert Einstein and the role of personality in science». En: Langdon, J.H., McGann, M.E. (eds.) The Natural History of Paradigms: Science and the Process of Intellectual Evolution, pp. 111–138. Indianapolis: University of Indianapolis Press.
Howard, Don (1997). «A peek behind the Veil of Maya: Einstein, Schopenhauer, and the historical background of the conception of space as a ground for the individuation of physical systems». En: Earman, J., Norton, J.D. (eds.) The Cosmos of Science. Pittsburgh-Konstanz Series in the Philosophy and History of Science, pp. 87–150. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Hutchinson, Darren S. y Johnson, Monte Ransome (2005). «Authenticating Aristotle’s Protrepticus». Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 29: pp. 193–294.
Iamblichus (1996). Protrepticus, vol. 6. Berlín: De Gruyter.
Kepler, Johannes (1992). Astronomia Nova (translated by William H. Donahue). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pickering, Andrew (1999). Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Quine, Willard van Orman (2015). Word and Object. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rovelli, Carlo (2015). «Aristotle’s Physics: A Physicist’s Look». Journal of the American Philosophical Association 1: pp. 23–40 https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2014.11
Weinberg, Stephen (1994). Dreams of a Final Theory. Nueva York: Vintage.
Published
2018-12-31
How to Cite
[1]
Rovelli, C. and Consiglio, F. 2018. Physics Needs Philosophy. Philosophy Needs Physics. Disputatio. 7, 8 (Dec. 2018), a019. DOI:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2554714.
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Articles and Essays
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