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Physics and Philosophy

Selected Essays

  • Book
  • © 1978

Overview

Authors:
  1. Henry Margenau

    1. Yale University, USA

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Part of the book series: Episteme (EPIS, volume 6)

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Table of contents (25 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxviii
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  2. Metascience: Philosophical Analysis of Scientific Truth

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. The Problem of Physical Explanation

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 3-20

    3. Probability and Causality in Quantum Physics

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 21-38

    4. Meaning and Scientific Status of Causality

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 39-51

    5. Methodology of Modern Physics

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 52-89

    6. Metaphysical Elements in Physics

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 90-113

    7. Is the Mathematical Explanation of Physical Data Unique?

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 114-122

  3. Fundamental Problems of 20th Century Physics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-124
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    2. Probability, Many-Valued Logics, and Physics

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 125-142

    3. On The Frequency Theory of Probability

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 143-157

    4. Can Time Flow Backwards?

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 158-174

    5. Causality in Quantum Electrodynamics

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 175-185

    6. Relativity: An Epistemological Appraisal

      • Richard A. Mould
      Pages 186-198

    7. Philosophical Problems Concerning the Meaning of Measurement in Physics

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 199-210

    8. Bacon and Modern Physics: A Confrontation

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 211-221

  4. Science and Human Affairs

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 223-224
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    2. Western Culture, Scientific Method and the Problem of Ethics

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 225-240

    3. Physical versus Historical Reality

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 241-264

    4. The New View of Man in His Physical Environment

      • Henry Margenau
      Pages 265-282
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Keywords

About this book

This book is intended for people interested in physics and its philosophy. for those who regard physics as an essential component of modern culture rather than merely a tool for industry or war. Indeed this volume is addressed to those students, teachers and research workers who enjoy learning, teaching or doing physics, and are in the habit of pausing once in a while to ponder over key physical concepts and hypotheses and to wonder whether received theories are as perfect as textbooks would have us believe and, if not, how they might be improved. Henry Margenau, recently retired from Yale University as Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and Philosophy, is the most important philosopher of physics of his generation, and indeed one of the most eminent philosophers of science of our century. He introduced and elucidated the notion of the correspondence rule. He claimed and showed, in the heyday of positivism, that physics has metaphysical presuppositions. He was the first to realize that quantum mechanics can do without von Neumann's projection postulat- and that was as far back as 1936. He clarified the physics and the philosophy of Pauli's exclusion principle at a time when it seemed mysterious. He was the first physicist to publish a philosophical paper in a physics journal, which he did as early as 1941. He was also one of the rare scientists who proclaimed the need for a scientific approach to value theory and ethics.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Yale University, USA

    Henry Margenau

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Physics and Philosophy

  • Book Subtitle: Selected Essays

  • Authors: Henry Margenau

  • Series Title: Episteme

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9845-2

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland 1978

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-0901-1Published: 31 October 1978

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-009-9847-6Published: 12 October 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-9845-2Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXXVIII, 405

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science

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