Talk:Philosophy of physics
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The following is clearly not an encyclopedia article, and it's barely even English:
A philosophy of physics, should provide solution for concepts ill defined terms in the mathematical realm by modern scientists. Let us then consider some of the problems of philosophical nature established by modern physics.
1) What is the nature of space, quantic as in our observance of energy, or continuum, as in the theoretical structure called the Cartesian graph, and the theoretical structure called Relativity?
2) What is the nature of Time, continuous or discontinuous as in Biology and Phylosophy, in which species have different rhythms of time.
3) What is the nature of matter, eternally divisible or indivisible?
This page desperately needs ot be rewritten. If I have time I'll return here the next few weeks and attempt to expand and systematize it. - Victor Gijsbers
Some time ago, I started a very ambitious article entitled the Intellectual history of time. It is not where I would like it to be. It seems that the few people besides me that have worked on it did not understand the purpose of it, or even comprehend some of the sentences that I wrote in it.
Although the article itself is sub-par as it stands, I think it may prove useful for the section "Philosophy of Space and Time", esp, in regard to question 2 above. Essentially, the main purpose of the article was to discuss question 2 above, as sort of a genealogy or archealogy of our philosophy of time. (or an epistemology, to be more conventional and presumptious) I think my intentions were very much inline with question 2.
I mention the article (Intellectual history of time) for the purposes of whatever advantages may be procured from it in regard to Philosophy of Space and Time. Whether people want to take chunks of it, link to it, just use some concepts from it, or ignore it all together, is up to them. It might be more creatively conducive to begin construction on Philosophy of Space and Time without much regard for Intellectual history of time, and look for advantages to be procured from Intellectual history of time only after Philosophy of Space and Time has already established it's identity.
In any case, I offer it up as a potential resource for information and discussion. -Kevin Baas
For now, let's combine the ancient and modern notions of physics for this article (i.e.: adding to this article the philosophy of natural philosophy).
Let me explain why I think we should. Physics and natural philosophy concern themselves with the understanding of the real world of change, by admittedly different methods. The philosophy of physics (both methodologies) have to do with how these real objects are studied, that is by an investigation of the procedural methods. For example, it might be noted that physics is much more mathematical than the other sciences or the way physicists derive principles from observation of oppositions in nature of various scales and qualities. Since they deal with the same object of study, the customs that have grown around investigating the physical world can be treated as either common to all physicists or as different sides to the same coin (the way philosophy or science both contribute to our knowledge of the natural world).
On the other hand, understanding the general terms which physicists use to express their conclusions, like time or space goes beyond studying reality, and while is a fact that deserves to be mentioned as what physicists acting as philosophers do to organize their science or philosophy of the real world (I have the Einstein quotation in mind here), it shouldn't be suggested that this organizational work is the proper subject matter of the philosophy of physics rather than the means of studying reality itself.
That is why I am changing the lead paragraph of this article to include not just modern physics. And why I may do other changes later to the Einstein quotation.
64.154.26.251 03:21, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Uncertainty Principle
Schrödinger's Cat is a representation of the concept of superposition of quantum states, the Uncertainty Principle is a completely different notion. I think the reference to Schrödinger's Cat (picture) is completely misleading in this section. Benzh 23:01, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] The review of Physics continues at Talk:Physics/wip
Some time ago a group of editors set up a "work in progress" page (at Talk:Physics/wip) to hammer out a consensus for the Physics article, which for too long had been in an unstable state. Discussion of the lead for the article has taken a great deal of time and thousands of words. The definitional and philosophical foundations seem to cause most headaches; but progress has been made. Why not review some of the proposals for the lead material that people are putting forward, or put forward your own, or simply join the discussion? The more contributors the better, for a consensus. – Noetica 01:57, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
Update: Concrete proposals have now been put forward, arising from recent discussion aimed at producing a stable and consensual lead section for the Physics article. We have set up a straw poll, for comments on the proposals. Why not drop in at Talk:Physics/wip, and have your say? The more the better! – Noetica 22:31, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
