Skip to content

History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 14

physics.hist-phBrowse archive

Spacetime Models for Cosmology
I revisit Roberto Torretti's "Spacetime Models for the World" [SHPMP 31 (2):171-186 (2000)] in the light of more recent work in (philosophy of) cosmology. I discuss the motivations for…
James Owen WeatherallApr 8, 2025
Learn
Limiting velocity and generalized Lorentz trasformations
After a short Historical bibliographical note, in the Starting points attention will be focused on some postulates common to classical mechanics and special relativity. Starting from these premises,…
Fabiano MinniApr 6, 2025
Learn
Blurred orbits and blurred particles: Heisenberg's 1926 helium atom
This work analyses the extent to which the "blurred orbits" of the current model for the atom, drafted by Heisenberg in 1926, fits the image of a bunch of wandering electrons around a…
G. Gimeno, M. Xipell, Enric PérezApr 5, 2025
Learn
A Deterministic Model of Free Will
The issue of whether we make decisions freely has vexed philosophers for millennia, Resolving this is vital for solving a diverse range of problems, from the physiology of how the brain makes…
Tim PalmerApr 1, 2025
Learn
A Contextual Approach to Technological Understanding and Its Assessment
Technological understanding is not a singular concept but varies depending on context. Building on De Jong and De Haro's (2025) notion of technological understanding as the ability to realise an…
Eline de Jong, Sebastian De HaroMar 27, 2025
Learn
Reframing the Free Will Debate: The Universe is Not Deterministic
Free will discourse is primarily centred around the thesis of determinism. Much of the literature takes determinism as its starting premise, assuming it true for the sake of discussion, and then…
Henry D. Potter, George F. R. Ellis, Kevin J. MitchellMar 25, 2025
Learn
The Great Rift in Physics
It is commonly remarked that contemporary physics faces a challenge in reconciling quantum theory with Relativity, specifically General Relativity as a theory of gravity. But "challenge" is…
Tim MaudlinMar 25, 2025
Learn
Weak Particle Presence
The concept of presence has been extensively explored in philosophy, yet the notion of particle presence within quantum theory remains under-examined. In this article, we explore particle presence…
Bethany TerrisMar 24, 2025
Learn
Quantization of the electromagnetic field, entropy of an ideal monoatomic gas, and the birth of Bose-Einstein statistics
In 1924, Einstein received a short manuscript in the mail from the Indian physicist S.N. Bose. He quickly translated Bose's manuscript to German and submitted it to Zeitschrift für Physik. Within…
Masud MansuripurMar 23, 2025
Learn
The Birth of Quantum Mechanics: A Historical Study Through the Canonical Papers
This paper explores the historical development of the theory of quantum mechanics between 1900 and 1927 by chronological examination of the foundational papers and ideas. Beginning with Planck's…
Eren Volkan KüçükMar 17, 2025
Learn
The rise of stochasticity in physics
In the last 175 years, the physical understanding of nature has seen a revolutionary change. Until about 1850, Newton's theory and the mechanical world view derived from it provided the dominant…
Hans A. WeidenmüllerMar 17, 2025
Learn
A quantitative analysis of Galilei's observations of Jupiter satellites from the Sidereus Nuncius
We present a new careful and comprehensive analysis the observations of the satellites of Jupiter from the Sidereus Nuncius that extends and complements previous similar studies. Each observation is…
Andrea LonghinMar 16, 2025
Learn
Translation of Valentine Bargmann, "Remarks on the general relativistic formulation of quantum theory" (1932)
English translation of "Bemerkungen zur allgemein-relativistischen Fassung der Quantentheorie", originally published in Sitzber. kgl.-preuß. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, Sitzung der phys.-math.…
A. E. S. HartmannMar 16, 2025
Learn
Why the Brain Cannot Be a Digital Computer: History-Dependence and the Computational Limits of Consciousness
This paper presents a novel information-theoretic proof demonstrating that the human brain as currently understood cannot function as a classical digital computer. Through systematic quantification…
Andrew KnightMar 13, 2025
Learn
Spacetime events from the inside out
We argue that special and general theories of relativity implicitly assume spacetime events correspond to quantum measurement outcomes. This leads to a change in how one should view the equivalence…
G. J. MilburnMar 10, 2025
Learn
The history of the Arcetri Physics Institute from the 1920s to the end of the 1960s
The history of the Arcetri Institute of Physics at the University of Florence is analyzed from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1960s. Thanks to the arrival of Garbasso in 1913, not only did…
Daniele DominiciMar 10, 2025
Learn
Do animals share space? An explanation to Zeno's paradox (of motion)
In this paper, a solution to Zeno's paradox of motion was offered and a possible, based on observations and empirical viewpoint, interpretation. A gedanken experiment was proposed in accordance…
Manuel A. B. Bache, Jorge Hernandez-ContrerasMar 8, 2025
Learn
Deterministic Theories
Determinism is (roughly) the thesis that the past determines the future. But efforts to define it precisely have exposed deep methodological disagreements. Standard possible-worlds formulations of…
Hans Halvorson, JB Manchak, James Owen WeatherallMar 7, 2025
Learn
Determinism and Asymmetry in General Relativity
This paper concerns the question of which collections of general relativistic spacetimes are deterministic relative to which definitions. We begin by considering a series of three definitions of…
JB Manchak, Thomas Barrett, Hans Halvorson et al.Mar 7, 2025
Learn
Physical, Empirical, and Conditional Inductive Possibility
I argue that John Norton's notions of empirical, hypothetical, and counterfactual possibility can be successfully used to analyze counterintuitive examples of physical possibility and align…
Balazs GyenisMar 6, 2025
Learn
A Tribute to Alexander Andrianov: A Life for Physics
Alexander Andreevich Andrianov was a remarkable personality in Russian physics during the last decades. A member of th prestigious school of theoretical physics in Saint Petersburg, he made relevant…
Domenec EspriuMar 5, 2025
Learn
Technological Understanding: On the cognitive skill involved in the design and use of technological artefacts
Although several accounts of scientific understanding exist, the concept of understanding in relation to technology remains underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a philosophical…
Eline de Jong, Sebastian De HaroMar 3, 2025
Learn
Einleitung [Introduction]
Hilary Putnam's biography and philosophical development reflect the history of Anglo-Saxon philosophy over the last 40 years. Putnam has influenced this history significantly for almost as long.…
Vincent C. MüllerFeb 28, 2025
Learn
The Simply Uninformed Thermodynamics of Erasure
1. Strong and weak notions of erasure are distinguished according to whether the single erasure procedure does or does not leave the environment in the same state independently of the pre-erasure…
John D. NortonFeb 24, 2025
Learn
The life cycle of scientific principles -- a template for characterizing physical principles
Scientific principles can undergo various developments. While philosophers of science have acknowledged that such changes occur, there is no systematic account of the development of scientific…
Radin Dardashti, Enno Fischer, Robert HarlanderFeb 20, 2025
Learn
← PreviousPage 14Next →