Physics and Philosophy: Selected EssaysThis 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. |
Contents
Probability ManyValued Logics and Physics | 125 |
On the Frequency Theory of Probability | 143 |
Can Time Flow Backwards? | 158 |
Causality in Quantum Electrodynamics | 175 |
An Epistemological Appraisal | 186 |
Philosophical Problems Concerning the Meaning | 199 |
a Confrontation | 211 |
Western Culture Scientific Method and the Problem | 225 |
Science and Human Affairs | 283 |
The New Style of Science | 295 |
Phenomenology and Physics | 317 |
Physics and Ontology | 329 |
Metaethics | 339 |
The Pursuit of Significance | 351 |
Note on Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness | 373 |
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS | 391 |
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abstract aggregate analysis applied atomic behavior called causality classical physics complete concepts constructs correlation defined definition discovery domain electron elements empirical energy entities equations ethics example existence experience fact field force formal frequency function Hence human instance intuition involves knowledge laws logical mass mathematical matter meaning measurement metaphysical method methodology modern physics motion object observations operational P-plane pair production particles perceptions phenomena phenomenology philosophic Philosophy of Science photon Phys physical explanation physical reality physical theory physicist positron possible postulate prediction present principle principle of relativity probability problem procedure properties propositions quantities quantum mechanics quantum theory question reason reference regard relation relativity religion requirements result rules of correspondence scientific scientist sensed nature significance space specific Spectral Lines symbols t₁ theoretical theory of relativity things tion true truth uncertainty principle universe validity variables verified word world line