Questions tagged [philosophy-of-physics]
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34
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
3
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0answers
121 views
Removal of the distinction between the “initial condition” and the “laws of physics”?
Background and Question
Here's something I was wondering: The (known) laws of physics can be formulated in such a way that one say: "initial condition" + "laws of physics" gives us a "final solution."...
3
votes
0answers
102 views
Was there an influence of Schellings Naturphilosophie on Einstein?
Darrigol in Electrodynamics from Ampere to Einstein writes:
In Germany, a few marginal followers of Schellings Naturphilosophie criticised the general notion of fluids acting at a distance and ...
2
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0answers
66 views
Did physicist Erwin Schrödinger propose that reality could have contradictions?
Did Schrödinger believe that contradictory or inconsistent things could exist in reality?
Was Schrödinger some kind of dialetheist?
2
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0answers
199 views
Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics - Argument explanation
I would be grateful if someone could explain me this argument from Philosophy of Physics in plain English. I'm not sure how Albert arrives at his conclusion and I lack the mathematical skills to ...
2
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0answers
36 views
What developments prompted Cliffords picture of spacetime?
In 1870, Clifford, the English mathematician and sometime philosopher wrote the following in his book, On the Space theory of Matter;
I hold as a fact:
That small portions of space are in fact of a ...
2
votes
0answers
137 views
How to harmonise Empedocles theory of perception
In White Mythologies, in part a disquisition on poetics, Derrida quotes Du Marsais on metaphor:
When we speak of the light of the mind, the word light is to be taken metaphorically; for just as light ...
2
votes
0answers
107 views
considering the line and circle as not just a contrary, but as a extremes on a continuum
Question:
In Greek philosophy, it is generally taken that the line and the circle form a contrary. For example in Aristoteles Physics generally takes that motion can be formed out of this contrary, ...
2
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0answers
82 views
Mass and Density in De Rerum Natura
Lucretious poem, De Rerum Natura has the following:
Again, why see we among objects some
Of heavier weight, but of no bulkier size?
Indeed, if in a ball of wool there be
As much of body as in lump of ...
2
votes
1answer
358 views
What is the relationship between Al-Ghazali's Occasionalism, Whitehead's occasions and QM?
In 1993, Karen Harding, a philosopher wrote a paper, Causality then and now: Al-Ghazali and QM. She remarked:
In both cases, and contrary to common sense, objects are viewed as having no inherent ...
2
votes
2answers
192 views
What's the difference between logical modalities and physical modalities?
I am just wondering what's the difference between the two. I would say that there is something different, but honestly I can't define what it is exactly. What do you think?
1
vote
1answer
123 views
About Wigner's view on the relation between mathematics and physics?
Physicist Eugene Wigner argued that
the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is
something bordering on the mysterious
and that
there is no rational explanation for it
...
1
vote
0answers
90 views
What were the arguments Hawking considered naive against imaginary time?
background
So I recently I read this.
I believe that you are correct; I think an inclusion of that might
make the article a bit clearer. Hawking used that explanation to
rebuke a naive ...
1
vote
0answers
181 views
Are Max Tegmark's Mathematical Universe Hypothesis and Seth Lloyd's Cosmological Model compatible?
I have been interested in Seth Lloyd's cosmological model (which proposes that the universe is a some kind of quantum computer or at least similar to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
1
vote
0answers
39 views
What is Quine’s reductionism?
I am especially interested in how reductionism is related to the fact that even though science broadly comprehends a number of subjects, physics is paradigmatic.
1
vote
0answers
93 views
What is the meaning of using a mathematical structure to describe physics?
I'm trying to understand the meaning of using a mathematical structure in order to do physics, what does this really mean?
My idea is that first we performs experiments on a physical system in order ...
1
vote
0answers
179 views
Multiverse and the anthropic principle?
In this paper (https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0211048) by physicist Andrei Linde, the multiverse concept, the anthropic principle, quantum cosmology and inflationary cosmology are discussed.
In the ...
1
vote
0answers
45 views
About the advantages of the propensity perspective on probability
I am wandering what are the advantages of the propensity perspective on probability. Why would it be better to explain probability in physics? Except for the fact that it solves various problems of ...
1
vote
0answers
72 views
Is mental “substance” quantifiable?
David Chalmers presents different options of idealism to approach the mind-body problem in his article, and his suggestions got me thinking.
He presents ways of taking a sort of objective-idealism ...
1
vote
0answers
47 views
What is the difference between Lucretians concept of mass and Galileos?
It's generally taken that Galileo established the concept of mass; and usually this is illustrated by the apocrophyl story of two cannon-balls of differing size thrown simultaneously from the top of a ...
1
vote
0answers
45 views
Can a priori principles be applied to deduce 'Principal Bundles' as principles in Modern Physics?
Kant supplied a priori arguments for Newtonian Physics in his Metaphysics of Natural Science
Has something similar been done for Modern Physics; which in its geometrical intepretation are concieved ...
1
vote
0answers
53 views
Does pure Place have Being?
According to Aristotelian physics
A vacuum, or void, is a place free of everything, and Aristotle argued against the possibility.
Void doesn't seem to be the Parmenidian Non-Being. It still has ...
0
votes
1answer
127 views
How touch occurs in a simulation hypothesis or in a brain hypothesis in a vat?
The point is that it doesn't matter whether these hypothesis are correct or not. The only thing that worries me is how the touch happens if in the real world it is the interaction of atoms (in ...
0
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0answers
146 views
Theory of Everything: simple but repetitive or complicated by efficient?
Which of the following criteria is more persuasive for choosing a Theory Of Everything:
A very simple theory that requires an enormous amount of calculation to compute the universe (e.g. 10^(10^(10^(....
0
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0answers
38 views
Has any physicist advocate for both Putnam's thesis of “Logic is Empirical” and the Multiverse?
Philosopher Hilary Putnam proposed a very interesting thesis 1, advocating that Logic itself may be empirical. I have found another interesting article 2 by the physicist Matthew S Leifer where he ...
0
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0answers
74 views
Axiomatic system and symbolic, formal, mathematical language
Is there any need for axiomatic systems to be in a symbolic, formal, mathematical language?
Equivalently is there any prohibition of axioms in axiomatic systems being in natural language?
In other ...
0
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0answers
43 views
Methodological universalities in Physics
Is there any methodological characteristic universal in Physics?
Even if some branches of Physics lose their reproducibility, their experimental testing, their deterministic predictivity isn't some ...
0
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0answers
334 views
Relation of reproducibility and the lack of contigencies with the scientific method
What is the relation of reproducibility and the lack of contigencies with the scientific method?
Quantum mechanics and Statistical physics/mechanics are vurnerable/suspectible to contigencies. We ...
0
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0answers
36 views
Non-demarcation between internalist and externalist accounts?
Question
Are the internalist and externalist accounts of perception such as vision possible?
Background
Philosophers distinguish internalist accounts, which assume that
perceptions of objects, ...
0
votes
0answers
193 views
Is it there any direct relation between Tegmark's Mathematical Universe Hypothesis and the Holographic Principle?
I would like to ask you about Tegmark's Mathematical Universe Hypothesis and its relation to the holographic principle: Could we use the holographic principle as a framework to Tegmark's MUH?
I mean, ...
0
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0answers
50 views
Does this argument by Aristotle show that identity is not fundamental?
Atomism remains the paradigm for physical explanations:
There are only atoms and the void within which they move. And the All is made up of their collisions and their combinations.
In this picture, ...
0
votes
0answers
33 views
Do any contemporary philosophers say “physical” space is ideal, just not the rest of it? Is it possible to?
Do any contemporary philosophers say "physical" space is ideal, just not the rest of it?
Is it possible (I guess, consistent) to say that, even? I do not know what space is in physics.
0
votes
1answer
75 views
Is there a difference between 'exists' and 'theoretically possible'?
For the purpose of this questions let's assume that the physics of our universe can be fully described by a complete non-contradictory theory (i.e. that theory of everything exists). Then our universe ...
0
votes
1answer
93 views
Is it there any specific and well known continous/analog alternative to Wheeler's discrete “It from Bit”?
Physicist John A Wheeler (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Archibald_Wheeler) suggested the concept of "law without law" and "it from bit" which suggested that the universe did not have any laws ...
-1
votes
2answers
212 views
Is a quantum theory that is indigenously quantum mechanical a real possibility?
The general approach to Quantum Mechanics is that one first takes a classical system and then quantise to obtain a quantum mechanical system. This holds for QM itself, and QFT such as QED and QCD and ...
