Navarro, Jaume (Author)
Historical accounts of the work of J. J. Thomson find a contradiction in his work. On the one hand, he is presented as a Maxwellian theoretical physicist dealing with a typically Victorian entity, the ether. On the other hand, the analysis of his experimental work at the Cavendish seems to have little connection with his mathematical work. In this paper, I discuss the metaphysical views of J. J. Thomson, and argue that his deep belief in the ultimate continuity of matter can be seen to give a framework to both his theoretical and his experimental work. His metaphysical beliefs were not in the least shaken by the discovery of discrete phenomena and entities, not even by his suggestion of the existence of corpuscles later known as electrons. His formation in Cambridge, together with some ideas that he acquired in his youth at Owens College, Manchester, are the key to understanding his metaphysics and the role it plays in his scientific work.
...More
Article
Bordoni, Stefano;
(2011)
Joseph John Thomson’s Models of Matter and Radiation in the Early 1890s
(/isis/citation/CBB277370460/)
Article
Pierfrancesco Basile;
(2015)
Learning from Leibniz: Whitehead (and Russell) on Mind, Matter and Monads
(/isis/citation/CBB635051687/)
Article
Clarke, Simon;
(2005-2006)
Rutherford at Canterbury University College
(/isis/citation/CBB000931935/)
Article
Navarro, Jaume;
(2006)
Imperial Incursions in Late-Victorian Cambridge: J. J. Thomson and the Domains of the Physical Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB000771570/)
Article
Navarro, Jaume;
(2010)
Electron Diffraction chez Thomson: Early Responses to Quantum Physics in Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB000933701/)
Article
Hughes, Jeff;
(2009)
Making Isotopes Matter: Francis Aston and the Mass-Spectrograph
(/isis/citation/CBB000931747/)
Article
Kragh, Helge;
(2011)
Conceptual Objections to the Bohr Atomic Theory---Do Electrons Have a “Free Will”?
(/isis/citation/CBB001251949/)
Article
Kragh, Helge;
(2011)
A Controversial Molecule: The Early History of Triatomic Hydrogen
(/isis/citation/CBB001230536/)
Article
Baily, C.;
(2012)
Early Atomic Models---from Mechanical to Quantum (1904--1913)
(/isis/citation/CBB001251960/)
Thesis
Kochiras, Hylarie;
(2008)
Force, Matter, and Metaphysics in Newton's Natural Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB001561168/)
Chapter
Morris, Kathryn;
(2007)
Descartes and Hobbes on the Physics and Metaphysics of Resistance
(/isis/citation/CBB001035321/)
Chapter
Stefano Bordoni;
(2009)
Discrete Models for Electromagnetic Radiation: J.J. Thomson and Einstein
(/isis/citation/CBB519434910/)
Book
Navarro, Jaume;
(2012)
A History of the Electron: J. J. and G. P. Thomson
(/isis/citation/CBB001213217/)
Article
Blank, Andreas;
(2013)
Fortunio Liceti on Mind, Light, and Immaterial Extension
(/isis/citation/CBB001320399/)
Article
Palmerino, Carla Rita;
(2011)
The Isomorphism of Space, Time and Matter in Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB001220180/)
Article
Karoliina Pulkkinen;
(2019)
Values and Periodicity: Mendeleev's Reception of the Equations of Mills, Chicherin, and Vincent
(/isis/citation/CBB055414260/)
Article
Scheffler, Robin Wolfe;
(2009)
Interests and Instrument: A Micro-History of Object Wh.3469 (X-Ray Powder Diffraction Camera, ca. 1940)
(/isis/citation/CBB000932512/)
Article
Simon Cook;
(2016)
The Tragedy of Cambridge Anthropology: Edwardian Historical Thought and the Contact of Peoples
(/isis/citation/CBB416459127/)
Article
Heffernan, Michael;
Jöns, Heike;
(2013)
Research Travel and Disciplinary Identities in the University of Cambridge, 1885--1955
(/isis/citation/CBB001252901/)
Article
Noakes, Richard;
(2008)
The “World of the Infinitely Little”: Connecting Physical and Psychical Realities circa 1900
(/isis/citation/CBB000931141/)
Be the first to comment!