Philosophy of science Definition and 28 Threads

I was reading a Nature article by Dean Keith Simonton speaking about how science seems to have slowed and there really isn’t such a thing as a real genius anymore. He defines a true genius as “A real paradigm shifter. A Renaissance human who could completely change the way we understand the...

Fire, Gravity, Electromagnetism, Atoms, DNA, Steam power, Nuclear, Quarks. All of these things have one thing in common. They are fundamental aspects of the universe that humans have uncovered and given names. However, all of these great discoveries occured quite some time ago and as a science...

In this video () physicist Brian Greene interviews Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter about several topics in cosmology. At minute 1:12:22 Greene asks Perlmutter about whether he considers that the world is described by mathematics or the world *is* mathematics. Perlmutter seems to answer that he...

The mathematician and mathematical physicist Alain Connes has expressed in many occasions that he is a Platonism and he thinks that mathematics itself does exist in the same level (or even in a "stronger" level) as physical reality. This is very similar to Max Tegmark's hypothesis of the...

A very "meta" idea crossed my mind today, and I'd like some feedback. Apologies in advance in case the half-formedness of said idea results in a meandering post. The specific connection I made was that the creation-versus-evolution "debate" could be characterized, at its most basic, as the...

Summary:: When experimenting to improve a theory, account for the fact that your experimental equipment is made using the very same theory which you are trying to improve. 1.) It would take many decades (~ 80 years?) to design and make equipment entirely using a proposed new theory which has...

One of the paradoxical principles in Quantum Physics is the principle of quantum superposition, since in quantum theory we are not really talking about the superposition of waves or oscillations, but about the superposition of states. A classic example demonstrating the phenomenon of quantum...

Most potentials in physics are expressed as a radius or another geometric norm/gauge. I am looking to understand the significance of the choice of potential functions for force/pressure separation in harmonic analysis before this creates a topology. To my understanding this is the decision of...

Is this the proper thread to discuss the philosophy of science/physics (metaphysics/ontology/epistemology)? How about the philosophy of mathematics and logic? As a side note that I'm not sure if this information really relates to the connection between science maths and philosophy, but in my...

My son is taking a chemistry class in high school, and he was telling me this morning that their teacher had taught them there was some kind of fundamental distinction between scientific laws and theories. He said the teacher had told them that laws are just fundamental regularities observed in...

(i am new and posted this in a Discussion area, it probably belongs here as I noticed marcus posts here. moderators, please delete the other message. my apologies) I am working on a contest question: In a causally connected universe how can one break symmetry if one assumes symmetry at one...

I am getting more and more confused when people say or ask if something exists? (Say force, virtual particles, or even spin) Such as, "is wavefunction real?" "Are virtual particles real?" "Are force real?" Are those types of questions usually ill-defined or not well-posed? Or they are just...

Physics is one of my most favorite topics, particularly Theoretical Physics. I have no formal education in Physics but I read quite a bit Physics material and also some Physics books. I have B.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering. I like to discuss advanced physics ideas logically and...

They are subjective even in the classical, nonrelativistic mechanics of a pendulum, since the notions appear when you try to relate the theory to a real pendulum. In classical, nonrelativistic mechanics, the interpretation of the words ''observation'', ''experiment'' and ''measurement'' needed...

why were quantities like momentum, force , potential energy, kinetic energy,work ,etc needed to be introduced in physics? and why were they defined the way they are defined?. would it not be possible to explain nature without defining these quantities or by using alternate physical quantities ?

A common claim that hurricanes and cyclones have geometrical proportions that resemble a logarithmic golden spiral. Knowing that cyclones and hurricanes rotate because of the well-known Coriolis Effect, is it possible that the Golden Ratio is just a natural manifestation of the Coriolis effect?

I was born and raised in Czechoslovakia (currently the Czech Republic) where I completed my Masters degree in Physics and Philosophy. I recently completed my PhD in science education and I am looking for "my place" in academia. In my dissertation I focused on a problem of students' understanding...

Zahid Iftikhar asked why charges get separated in a changing magnetic field over in the EE forum. I pointed him to Maxwell's equations and also pointed out we took them to be observational and axiomatic. Yet it occurred to me there might be an reason in quantum probability. So is there a...

Was just thinking, is it ever possible that the same phenomenon can be fully explained by two theories that are not subset of each other? :rolleyes:

I don't really have to look into this just yet but it bothers me. I quite like cosmology and stuff like such. Universal topology and relativity and sum of histories and stuff. Fun! I really would like to study any theoretical physics though, it just strikes my fancy particularly. I figure I'd...

First of all I am a scientist, or a chemist to be more precise. I am changing career to become a chemistry teacher and my course requires me to write an essay on the nature of science and teaching science etc.. I'm having a hard time understanding these 3 philosophers view on what science is...

Science describes three types of object. The first two are those that can be hidden - material objects, and those that are necessarilly hidden - quantum objects. Thus, we have an independent source supporting Popper's* view that science is the domain of the empirically falsifiable, as hidden...

hi everyone-- for the philosophy of science course, I am planning to write a paper, and wanted to hear opinions about my topic. I am not a philosophy student (math&physics), and haven't taken that much of philosophy courses, so I can't go real deep about any subject, but I want to apply what...

I am part way through a BSc in natural sciences with open university,its going well and I am enjoying the course (in my second year) I had for a long time wanted to carry straight on with physics into an MSc or PHD,but over the last year I've become increasingly interested with the philosophy...

hey, my question is, do you know how many philosophers of science actually studied science? is it important to study science or can i get a long with philosophy and learn from the internet, for example, physics? i prefer not study physics because the math involved and most principles i can read...

I'm trying to explain something to someone, but I can't find the right words; I hope some of you can help me. Observations are limited by the instruments available to a scientist. For example, before invention of the microscope, observation of microscopic objects was impossible. In the...

Making a basic vocabulary of the philosophy of science Hi, I just posted this on another board I'm at that often has debates where issues of science sometimes come up, along with the standard annoying arguments like "it's just a theory". This is an attempt by me to clear things up. So, this is...

I found some detailed lecture notes on this subject here: http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/phil_sci_lecture00.html I am interested in discussing the role of philosophy in science with you all.