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Physics, Philosophy, and the Scientific Community

Essays in the philosophy and history of the natural sciences and mathematics In honor of Robert S. Cohen

  • Book
  • © 1995

Overview

Editors:
  1. Kostas Gavroglu

    1. National Technical University, Athens, Greece

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  2. John Stachel

    1. Boston University, USA

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  3. Marx W. Wartofsky

    1. Baruch College, The City University of New York, USA

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Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (BSPS, volume 163)

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Table of contents (21 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxvii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Philosophical and Historical Issues in Contemporary Physics

    1. Experiment Vis-a-Vis Theory in Superconductivity Research. The Case of Bernd Matthias

      • Joan Lisa Bromberg
      Pages 1-10

    2. Philosophy and the Birth of Quantum Theory

      • Catherine Chevalley
      Pages 11-37

    3. Identity Questions from Quantum Theory

      • Maria L. Dalla Chiara, G. Toraldo di Francia
      Pages 39-46

    4. Some Reminiscences of Robert Cohen’s Physics Department

      • Dean S. Edmonds
      Pages 47-72

    5. Einstein in the Land of Nobel: An Episode in the Interplay of Science, Politics, Epistemology and Popular Culture

      • Aant Elzinga
      Pages 73-103

    6. Did They Just Misunderstood Each Other? Logical Empiricists and Bohr’s Complementarity Argument

      • Ulrich Röseberg
      Pages 105-123

    7. Physics, Community and the Crisis in Physical Theory

      • Sylvan S. Schweber
      Pages 125-152

  3. Critical Questions in the Philosophy and History of the Natural Sciences

    1. Contemporary Philosophy of Science as a Thinly Masked Antidemocratic Apologetics

      • Joseph Agassi
      Pages 153-170

    2. A Philosopher Looks at Science

      • Tian Yu Cao
      Pages 171-187

    3. Animal Mechanism and the Cartesian Vision of Nature

      • Marjorie Grene
      Pages 189-204

    4. Michael Polanyi and the History of Science

      • Gerald Holton
      Pages 205-223

    5. Cosmological Outlooks and Technological Transfers: A Comparative View from Eastern Periphery

      • Shigeru Nakayama
      Pages 225-233

    6. Some Questions Concerning Limitations of the Range of Validity of Kuhn’s Model of the History of Science

      • Azarya Polikarov
      Pages 235-240

    7. Historical Epistemology and Interdisciplinarity

      • Jürgen Renn
      Pages 241-251

    8. American Creativity Research in a Bipolar World: A Look at One Chapter in World History and History of Science

      • Mathias Wallner
      Pages 253-272
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Keywords

About this book

In three volumes, a distinguished group of scholars from a variety of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the humanities and the arts contribute essays in honor of Robert S. Cohen, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The range of the essays, as well as their originality, and their critical and historical depth, pay tribute to the extraordinary scope of Professor Cohen's intellectual interests, as a scientist-philosopher and a humanist, and also to his engagement in the world of social and political practice.
The essays presented in Physics, Philosophy, and the Scientific Community (Volume I of Essays in Honor of Robert S. Cohen) focus on philosophical and historical issues in contemporary physics: on the origins and conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics, on the reception and understanding of Bohr's and Einstein's work, on the emergence of quantum electrodynamics, and on some of the sharp philosophical and scientific issues that arise in current scientific practice (e.g. in superconductivity research). In addition, several essays deal with critical issues within the philosophy of science, both historical and contemporary: e.g. with Cartesian notions of mechanism in the philosophy of biology; with the language and logic of science - e.g. with new insights concerning the issue of a `physicalistic' language in the arguments of Neurath, Carnap and Wittgenstein; with the notion of `elementary logic'; and with rational and non-rational elements in the history of science. Two original contributions to the history of mathematics and some studies in the comparative sociology of science round off this outstanding collection.

Editors and Affiliations

  • National Technical University, Athens, Greece

    Kostas Gavroglu

  • Boston University, USA

    John Stachel

  • Baruch College, The City University of New York, USA

    Marx W. Wartofsky

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