Physics, Logic, and History

Free Download Physics, Logic, and History: Based on the First International Colloquium held at the University of Denver, May 16-20, 1966 by Wolfgang Yourgrau (Co-chairman of the Colloquium. Quantum theory, general relativity, thermophysics, variational principles; co-editor of Foundations of Physics), Allen D. Breck (Co-chairman of the Colloquium. Medieval history, historiography, philosophy of history)
English | PDF | 1970 | 343 Pages | ISBN : 1468417517 | 34.9 MB
It is a trite and often lamented fact that every academic discipline suffers from the malady of overspecialization and expertise. Who, in his scholarly experience, has not encountered technical gibberish and the jargon of the pundit? The contributors to this work have aUempted to remove the artifi cial barriers between these respective disciplines. The purpose of this volume is to explore the ever present links between logic, physical reality, and history. Indeed there are not two or three or four cuItures: there is only one culture; our generation has lost its awareness of this. Though serious, it is not tragic. All we need is to free ourselves from the fetters of mere "technicalese" and search for a comprehensive interpretation of logical and physical theories. His'torians, logicians, physicists - all are banded in one common enterprise, namely in their desire to weave an enlightened fabric of human knowledge. It is a current, and perhaps weJcome, trend in philosophie inquiry to de-psychologize systems, methods, and theories. However, there is an equally fashionable tendency to minimize or even eschew the historical aspects of logical and physical theories, and analogously, there is a deep seated mistrust among physicists and cosmologists against the seemingly pure abstractions of logical formalisms.