The Logic of Modern Physics


Book Description







The Logic of Modern Physics


Book Description










THE LOGIC OF MODERN PHYSICS


Book Description

This excursion into the field of fundamental criticism by one whose activities have hitherto been confined almost entirely to experiment is not evidence of senile decay, as might be cynically assumed. I have always, throughout all my experimental work, felt an imperative need of a better understanding of the foundations of our physical thought and have for a long time made more or less unsystematic attempts to reach such an understanding. Only now, however, has a half sabbatical year given me leisure to attempt a more or less orderly exposition. In spite of previous writings on the broad fundamentals by Clifford, Stall, Mach, and Poincare, to mention only a few, I believe a new essay of this critical character needs no apology. For entirely apart from the question of whether many of the points of view of these essays can be maintained, the discovery of new facts in the domain of relativity and quantum theory has shifted the centre of interest and emphasis. All the quite recent activity with the new quantum mechanics seems to call for a new examination of fundamental matters which shall recognize, at least by implication, the existence of the special phenomena of the quantum domain. However, the necessity for re-examination does not mean at all that many of the results of previous criticism may not still be accepted; some of these results have become so thoroughly incorporated into physical thinking that we can assume them without mention. Thus the fundamental attitude of this essay is empiricism, which is now justified as the attitude of the physicist in large part by the inquiry into the physiological origin of our concepts of space, time, and mechanics with which the previous essays were largely concerned. None of the previous essays have consciously or immediately affected the details of this; in fact I have not read any of them within several years. If passages here recall passages already written, it is because the ideas have been assimilated and the precise origin forgotten; it is probably worth while to let such passages stand without revision, because such ideas gain in plausibility through having been found acceptable to independent thought. I am much indebted to Professor R. F. Alfred Hoernle of the Department of Philosophy of Johannesburg University, South Africa, for suggesting several modifications to make the text more acceptable to a philosopher, and slight amplifications for the benefit of readers not familiar with all the details of recent technical developments in physics...FROM THE BOOKS.




Modern Physics and its Philosophy


Book Description

In selecting the papers for this volume I have excluded all physics papers proper. I have further omitted all book rev.iews. Instead, I have included two papers not published previously; they are marked by an asterisk (*) in the table of contents. Since many of the papers were occasioned by Symposia or similar gatherings their chronological order is rather accidental. Hence I have tried to group the papers thematically into four parts. Within each part the order of sequence is from the more general to the more special, or from a more popular to a more technical treatment. The same principle has been applied to the sequential order of the parts. The foundational papers on quantum mechanics have been arranged in a somewhat dif ferent manner. Chapters XVI-XIX are concerned with the logic of complementarity while in Chapters XX-XXII a more radical recon ceptualization is carried out. Two of the older papers (Chapters VI and VIII) have been revised to bring them more into line with present terminology. Other papers have been corrected by additions and omissions. Additions are marked by square brackets [ ], while double square brackets [[ II signify omis sions or parts to be omitted. Hence [[A]] [B] means that 'A' should be replaced by 'B'. The heading of one paper (Chapter XX) has been changed to make it more descriptive.







Rebuilding Modern Physics


Book Description

"Because the theories of Special and General Relativity and the standard model for the physics of subatomic particles seem extremely intricate, artificial, irrational, and contradictory and irreconcilable between themselves; I consider it a moral obligation and an act of loyalty with regard to physics and towards myself to submit this work for the consideration and analysis by physicists’ and lay persons, as a seminal contribution to the advancement of physics in general, this work being an epistemological dissertation based on a pragmatic, discovery-helping process of reasoning and deduction, rather than a technical discussion with the mathematical detail and precision usually set forth in the presentation of modern physics. The logical answers found for all the theoretical questions and doubts I raised for myself concerning those two important areas of modern physics are those I explain in this work to share them with my dear readers, being sure that its conceptual presentation will open up for them, as with me, new paths to arrive at an integral knowledge and understanding of physics; my main motivation and purpose being to have physics again placed under the aegis of logic, common sense and conceptual rigor in accordance with clear philosophical and epistemological basic rules, trying to avoid the ad-hoc building of geometrical and mathematical nirvanas in order to explain that which can be explained rationally and with simple words" Enrique Morales-Riveira October 2009 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With solid scientific research, Rebuilding Modern Physics offers a new approach to physics, one which will clarify the dark, mysterious, intricate, and confusing areas of modern physics. Under the steady hand of Enrique Morales-Riveira, physics again becomes the realm of reason, logic, and reality. In this epistemological discourse, Morales-Riveira shows how Minkowski’s space-time, the theories of Special and General Relativity, the standard model for the physics of fundamental particles, and the current cosmological theories are based on irrational ideas and misleading experiments. This has caused modern physics to fatally become a kind of unrealistic science where common sense and physical reality do not have any place whatsoever. This is leading modern physics to an ominous dead-end street and preventing its climb to the next platform. His discussions include: • Why it is imperative to urgently abandon the arbitrary and unnatural conception of Minkowski’s space-time in modern physics. • How natural space-time gives back to physics a lost symmetry, inner interdependence, unification, coherence, rationality, and simplicity. • Reinterpretation of Newton’s Theory of Universal Gravitation. Though controversial, Rebuilding Modern Physics marks an inflexion point in the science of physics for future generations of physicists avid to unveil the truths behind time, space, energy, and matter.




The Language of Modern Physics


Book Description

First published in 1956 The Language of Modern Physics gives a complete account of the concepts both of classical and quantum physics. The first part of the book deals with modern logic and semantics and discussion is based on the semantic conception of truth and leads up to the criterion of meaning. The second and main part of the book is about basic ideas of physics. Here the model which underlies a scientific theory is of greatest import; in most instances the model is tacitly assumed, but we must bring it into the open if we want to understand the theory. The third and last part deals with the methods scientists use for confirming their hypotheses. This book is a must read for students and scholars of philosophy of science and philosophy in general.