Idealizations In Physics

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Idealization and the Aims of Science

Author : Angela Potochnik
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022675944X
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis Idealization and the Aims of Science by : Angela Potochnik

Download or read book Idealization and the Aims of Science written by Angela Potochnik and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-09-23 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science is the study of our world, as it is in its messy reality. Nonetheless, science requires idealization to function—if we are to attempt to understand the world, we have to find ways to reduce its complexity. Idealization and the Aims of Science shows just how crucial idealization is to science and why it matters. Beginning with the acknowledgment of our status as limited human agents trying to make sense of an exceedingly complex world, Angela Potochnik moves on to explain how science aims to depict and make use of causal patterns—a project that makes essential use of idealization. She offers case studies from a number of branches of science to demonstrate the ubiquity of idealization, shows how causal patterns are used to develop scientific explanations, and describes how the necessarily imperfect connection between science and truth leads to researchers’ values influencing their findings. The resulting book is a tour de force, a synthesis of the study of idealization that also offers countless new insights and avenues for future exploration.

Models and Idealizations in Science

Author : Alejandro Cassini
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 9783030658045
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (58 download)

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Book Synopsis Models and Idealizations in Science by : Alejandro Cassini

Download or read book Models and Idealizations in Science written by Alejandro Cassini and published by Springer. This book was released on 2022-05-29 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides both an introduction to the philosophy of scientific modeling and a contribution to the discussion and clarification of two recent philosophical conceptions of models: artifactualism and fictionalism. These can be viewed as different stances concerning the standard representationalist account of scientific models. By better understanding these two alternative views, readers will gain a deeper insight into what a model is as well as how models function in different sciences. Fictionalism has been a traditional epistemological stance related to antirealist construals of laws and theories, such as instrumentalism and inferentialism. By contrast, the more recent fictional view of models holds that scientific models must be conceived of as the same kind of entities as literary characters and places. This approach is essentially an answer to the ontological question concerning the nature of models, which in principle is not incompatible with a representationalist account of the function of models. The artifactual view of models is an approach according to which scientific models are epistemic artifacts, whose main function is not to represent the phenomena but rather to provide epistemic access to them. It can be conceived of as a non-representationalist and pragmatic account of modeling, which does not intend to focus on the ontology of models but rather on the ways they are built and used for different purposes. The different essays address questions such as the artifactual view of idealization, the use of information theory to elucidate the concepts of abstraction and idealization, the deidealization of models, the nature of scientific fictions, the structural account of representation and the ontological status of structures, the role of surrogative reasoning with models, and the use of models for explaining and predicting physical phenomena.

Idealizations in Physics

Author : Elay Shech
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108944175
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Idealizations in Physics by : Elay Shech

Download or read book Idealizations in Physics written by Elay Shech and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-26 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Element offers an opinionated and selective introduction to philosophical issues concerning idealizations in physics, including the concept of and reasons for introducing idealization, abstraction, and approximation, possible taxonomy and justification, and application to issues of mathematical Platonism, scientific realism, and scientific understanding.

European Philosophy of Science - Philosophy of Science in Europe and the Viennese Heritage

Author : Maria Carla Galavotti
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 331901899X
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis European Philosophy of Science - Philosophy of Science in Europe and the Viennese Heritage by : Maria Carla Galavotti

Download or read book European Philosophy of Science - Philosophy of Science in Europe and the Viennese Heritage written by Maria Carla Galavotti and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-08-28 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume combines the theoretical and historical perspective focusing on the specific features of a European philosophy of science. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Institute Vienna Circle the Viennese roots and influences will be addressed, in addition. There is no doubt that contemporary philosophy of science originated mainly in Europe beginning in the 19th century and has influenced decisively the subsequent development of globalized philosophy of science, esp. in North America. Recent research in this field documents some specific characteristics of philosophy of science covering the natural, social, and also cultural sciences in the European context up to the destruction and forced migration caused by Fascism and National Socialism. This European perspective with the integration of history and philosophy of science and the current situation in the philosophy of science after the transatlantic interaction and transformation, and the “return” after World War II raises the question of contemporary European characteristics in the philosophy of science. The role and function of the renowned Vienna Circle of Logical Empiricism and its impact and influence on contemporary philosophy of science is on the agenda, too. Accordingly, the general topic is dealt with in two parallel sessions representing systematic-formal as well as genetic-historical perspectives on philosophy of science in a European context up to the present.

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics

Author : Robert Batterman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195392043
Total Pages : 701 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics by : Robert Batterman

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics written by Robert Batterman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 701 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Oxford Handbook provides an overview of many of the topics that currently engage philosophers of physics. It surveys new issues and the problems that have become a focus of attention in recent years. It also provides up-to-date discussions of the still very important problems that dominated the field in the past. In the late 20th Century, the philosophy of physics was largely focused on orthodox Quantum Mechanics and Relativity Theory. The measurement problem, the question of the possibility of hidden variables, and the nature of quantum locality dominated the literature on the quantum mechanics, whereas questions about relationalism vs. substantivalism, and issues about underdetermination of theories dominated the literature on spacetime. These issues still receive considerable attention from philosophers, but many have shifted their attentions to other questions related to quantum mechanics and to spacetime theories. Quantum field theory has become a major focus, particularly from the point of view of algebraic foundations. Concurrent with these trends, there has been a focus on understanding gauge invariance and symmetries. The philosophy of physics has evolved even further in recent years with attention being paid to theories that, for the most part, were largely ignored in the past. For example, the relationship between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics—-once thought to be a paradigm instance of unproblematic theory reduction—-is now a hotly debated topic. The implicit, and sometimes explicit, reductionist methodology of both philosophers and physicists has been severely criticized and attention has now turned to the explanatory and descriptive roles of "non-fundamental,'' phenomenological theories. This shift of attention includes "old'' theories such as classical mechanics, once deemed to be of little philosophical interest. Furthermore, some philosophers have become more interested in "less fundamental'' contemporary physics such as condensed matter theory. Questions abound with implications for the nature of models, idealizations, and explanation in physics. This Handbook showcases all these aspects of this complex and dynamic discipline.

How the Laws of Physics Lie

Author : Nancy Cartwright
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191519901
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis How the Laws of Physics Lie by : Nancy Cartwright

Download or read book How the Laws of Physics Lie written by Nancy Cartwright and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1983-06-09 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sequence of philosophical essays about natural science, Nancy Cartwright argues that fundamental explanatory laws, the deepest and most admired successes of modern physics, do not in fact describe the regularities that exist in nature. Yet she is not `anti-realist'. Rather, she draws a novel distinction, arguing that theoretical entities, and the complex and localized laws that describe them, can be interpreted realistically, but that the simple unifying laws of basic theory cannot.

Theory and Reality

Author : Peter Godfrey-Smith
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022677113X
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis Theory and Reality by : Peter Godfrey-Smith

Download or read book Theory and Reality written by Peter Godfrey-Smith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-07-16 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is “really” like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the reader on a grand tour of more than a hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Examples and asides engage the beginning student, a glossary of terms explains key concepts, and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. Like no other text in this field, Theory and Reality combines a survey of recent history of the philosophy of science with current key debates that any beginning scholar or critical reader can follow. The second edition is thoroughly updated and expanded by the author with a new chapter on truth, simplicity, and models in science.

The Aharonov-Bohm Effect

Author : Murray Peshkin
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9783662137260
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (372 download)

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Book Synopsis The Aharonov-Bohm Effect by : Murray Peshkin

Download or read book The Aharonov-Bohm Effect written by Murray Peshkin and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Instrument of Science

Author : Darrell P. Rowbottom
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429666292
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (296 download)

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Book Synopsis The Instrument of Science by : Darrell P. Rowbottom

Download or read book The Instrument of Science written by Darrell P. Rowbottom and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-25 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roughly, instrumentalism is the view that science is primarily, and should primarily be, an instrument for furthering our practical ends. It has fallen out of favour because historically influential variants of the view, such as logical positivism, suffered from serious defects. In this book, however, Darrell P. Rowbottom develops a new form of instrumentalism, which is more sophisticated and resilient than its predecessors. This position—‘cognitive instrumentalism’—involves three core theses. First, science makes theoretical progress primarily when it furnishes us with more predictive power or understanding concerning observable things. Second, scientific discourse concerning unobservable things should only be taken literally in so far as it involves observable properties or analogies with observable things. Third, scientific claims about unobservable things are probably neither approximately true nor liable to change in such a way as to increase in truthlikeness. There are examples from science throughout the book, and Rowbottom demonstrates at length how cognitive instrumentalism fits with the development of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century chemistry and physics, and especially atomic theory. Drawing upon this history, Rowbottom also argues that there is a kind of understanding, empirical understanding, which we can achieve without having true, or even approximately true, representations of unobservable things. In closing the book, he sets forth his view on how the distinction between the observable and unobservable may be drawn, and compares cognitive instrumentalism with key contemporary alternatives such as structural realism, constructive empiricism, and semirealism. Overall, this book offers a strong defence of instrumentalism that will be of interest to scholars and students working on the debate about realism in philosophy of science.

Ernest Nagel: Philosophy of Science and the Fight for Clarity

Author : Matthias Neuber
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030810100
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Ernest Nagel: Philosophy of Science and the Fight for Clarity by : Matthias Neuber

Download or read book Ernest Nagel: Philosophy of Science and the Fight for Clarity written by Matthias Neuber and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is dedicated to the life and work of Ernest Nagel (1901-1985) counted among the influential twentieth-century philosophers of science. Forgotten by the history of philosophy of science community in recent years, this volume introduces Nagel’s philosophy to a new generation of readers and highlights the merits and originality of his works. Best known in the history of philosophy as a major American representative of logical empiricism with some pragmatist and naturalist leanings, Nagel’s interests and activities went beyond these limits. His career was marked with a strong and determined intention of harmonizing the European scientific worldview of logical empiricism and American naturalism/pragmatism. His most famous and systematic treatise on, The Structure of Science, appeared just one year before Thomas Kuhn’s even more renowned, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. As a reflection of Nagel’s interdisciplinary work, the contributing authors’ articles are connected both historically and systematically. The volume will appeal to students mainly at the graduate level and academic scholars. Since the volume treats historical, philosophical, physical, social and general scientific questions, it will be of interest to historians and philosophers of science, epistemologists, social scientists, and anyone interested in the history of analytic philosophy and twentieth-century intellectual history.

Idealization IX: Idealization in Contemporary Physics

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004457631
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Idealization IX: Idealization in Contemporary Physics by :

Download or read book Idealization IX: Idealization in Contemporary Physics written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-05-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is presented for the first time a comprehensive review and analysis of the several roles played by idealization procedures in the logic, mathematics and models that lie at the heart of modern, twentieth century physics. It is only through idealization of one form or another that the objects and processes of modern physics become tractable. The essays in this volume will be of interest to all those who are concerned with the uses of models in physics, and the relationships between models and the real world. The essays in this volume cover the role of idealization in all the main areas of modern physics, ranging from quantum theory, relativity theory and cosmology to chaos theory.

The Devil in the Details

Author : Robert W. Batterman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198033478
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis The Devil in the Details by : Robert W. Batterman

Download or read book The Devil in the Details written by Robert W. Batterman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-11-29 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Batterman examines a form of scientific reasoning called asymptotic reasoning, arguing that it has important consequences for our understanding of the scientific process as a whole. He maintains that asymptotic reasoning is essential for explaining what physicists call universal behavior. With clarity and rigor, he simplifies complex questions about universal behavior, demonstrating a profound understanding of the underlying structures that ground them. This book introduces a valuable new method that is certain to fill explanatory gaps across disciplines.

Symbol and Physical Knowledge

Author : M. Ferrari
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3662048558
Total Pages : 239 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Symbol and Physical Knowledge by : M. Ferrari

Download or read book Symbol and Physical Knowledge written by M. Ferrari and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces the problem of the symbolic structure of physics, surveys the modern history of symbols, proceeds to an epistemological discussion of the role of symbols in our knowledge of nature, and addresses key issues related to the methodology of physics and the character of its symbolic structures.

Beyond Reduction

Author : Steven Horst
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198043155
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Reduction by : Steven Horst

Download or read book Beyond Reduction written by Steven Horst and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary philosophers of mind tend to assume that the world of nature can be reduced to basic physics. Yet there are features of the mind consciousness, intentionality, normativity that do not seem to be reducible to physics or neuroscience. This explanatory gap between mind and brain has thus been a major cause of concern in recent philosophy of mind. Reductionists hold that, despite all appearances, the mind can be reduced to the brain. Eliminativists hold that it cannot, and that this implies that there is something illegitimate about the mentalistic vocabulary. Dualists hold that the mental is irreducible, and that this implies either a substance or a property dualism. Mysterian non-reductive physicalists hold that the mind is uniquely irreducible, perhaps due to some limitation of our self-understanding. In this book, Steven Horst argues that this whole conversation is based on assumptions left over from an outdated philosophy of science. While reductionism was part of the philosophical orthodoxy fifty years ago, it has been decisively rejected by philosophers of science over the past thirty years, and for good reason. True reductions are in fact exceedingly rare in the sciences, and the conviction that they were there to be found was an artifact of armchair assumptions of 17th century Rationalists and 20th century Logical Empiricists. The explanatory gaps between mind and brain are far from unique. In fact, in the sciences it is gaps all the way down.And if reductions are rare in even the physical sciences, there is little reason to expect them in the case of psychology. Horst argues that this calls for a complete re-thinking of the contemporary problematic in philosophy of mind. Reductionism, dualism, eliminativism and non-reductive materialism are each severely compromised by post-reductionist philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind is in need of a new paradigm. Horst suggests that such a paradigm might be found in Cognitive Pluralism: the view that human cognitive architecture constrains us to understand the world through a plurality of partial, idealized, and pragmatically-constrained models, each employing a particular representational system optimized for its own problem domain. Such an architecture can explain the disunities of knowledge, and is plausible on evolutionary grounds.

Foundations of Complex-system Theories

Author : Sunny Y. Auyang
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521778268
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (782 download)

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Book Synopsis Foundations of Complex-system Theories by : Sunny Y. Auyang

Download or read book Foundations of Complex-system Theories written by Sunny Y. Auyang and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes approaches to the study of complexity in the physical, biological, and social sciences.

The Structure of Idealization

Author : Lesz Nowak
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9401576513
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis The Structure of Idealization by : Lesz Nowak

Download or read book The Structure of Idealization written by Lesz Nowak and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much is said in Marxist literature about Marxist methodology which is supposed to be entirely original - differing a great deal from all other trends in the modern philosophy of science. On the other hand, however, it is unfallacious to state that there are no people outside Marxism who would like to deny this statement. This has to put those who really believe that Marxism has something important to say in philosophy of science on guard: if someone says something important others usually are inclined to protest. But who is inclined to protest when it is stated that Marx em ployed both induction and deduction, a historical method and a logical one as well, synthesis, but also analysis, etc? Who is inclined to protest when it is not known what within this framework 'induction', 'deduction' 'history' or 'logic' mean? Who is inclined to protest when 'Marxist meth odology' is presented not with the aid of precise definitions and clear hypotheses but with the aid of a jungle of quotations? I think that the main malfeasance of the current 'Marxist methodology', is that of ecclecticism. The methodology of Marx is presented as a col lection of trivial and/or obscure ideas but not as a system of statements subordinated to any clear, definite viewpoint presenting a new grasp ofthe nature of scientific cognition. Search for reconstruction of Marxian meth odology as a system of the kind is the main aim of this book.

How to Do Science with Models

Author : Axel Gelfert
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319279548
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (192 download)

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Book Synopsis How to Do Science with Models by : Axel Gelfert

Download or read book How to Do Science with Models written by Axel Gelfert and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-12-21 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking scientific practice as its starting point, this book charts the complex territory of models used in science. It examines what scientific models are and what their function is. Reliance on models is pervasive in science, and scientists often need to construct models in order to explain or predict anything of interest at all. The diversity of kinds of models one finds in science – ranging from toy models and scale models to theoretical and mathematical models – has attracted attention not only from scientists, but also from philosophers, sociologists, and historians of science. This has given rise to a wide variety of case studies that look at the different uses to which models have been put in specific scientific contexts. By exploring current debates on the use and building of models via cutting-edge examples drawn from physics and biology, the book provides broad insight into the methodology of modelling in the natural sciences. It pairs specific arguments with introductory material relating to the ontology and the function of models, and provides some historical context to the debates as well as a sketch of general positions in the philosophy of scientific models in the process.