Seth, Suman (Author)
This dissertation examines the development of the discipline of theoretical physics in Germany from its multiple and contested beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the end of the First World War. It describes the development of a self-aware discipline not only in terms of a history of ideas, but also in terms of that discipline's discursive, pedagogical and industrial contexts. By embedding two distinctly different kinds of theoretical physics---those of Max Planck and Arnold Sommerfeld---in their local and national contexts, the apparent coherence of the discipline in the mid-1920s is rendered a riddle to be explained, rather than the natural outcome of the rise of certain kinds of institutions or the internal development of ideas. Two particular constructions of theoretical physics are explored in detail: what has been termed the physics of principles, and what is here termed the physics of problems. The physics of principles was outlined by Planck in Berlin, and was emphasised by several theoreticians, most prominently Albert Einstein. The physics of problems was epitomized by the work of the Sommerfeld School in Munich. Planck promoted a practice of pure principles. Sommerfeld focussed on specific problems, drawing these from a variety of sources, including, even emphasising questions of economic or technological benefit. Although these two constructions are associated with the names of individuals, they had a much wider---community-wide---impact. Planck's views were put forward as part of a public, widely received discourse, one that was rapidly picked up, as Planck's scientific status rose within the physics community. The Sommerfeld School trained more theoretical physicists than any other site, at least eight Nobel prize winners among them. Sommerfeld's many students adopted his way of seeing the physical world and his and their analytic practices represented a dominant strand in what the field came to be. By exploring these two paths together one can begin to understand the formative years of the discipline that, to many, signified the pinnacle of scientific achievement for the twentieth century.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 64 (2004): 3453. UMI order no. 3102220.
Book
Badino, Massimiliano;
(2010)
Il professore e il suo demone: La lunga lotta di Max Planck contro la statistica (1896--1906)
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Chapter
Seth, Suman;
(2006)
Allgemeine Physik? Max Planck und die Gemeinschaft der theoretischen Physik, 1906--1914
(/isis/citation/CBB001021526/)
Book
Eckert, Michael;
(2013)
Arnold Sommerfeld. Atomphysiker und Kulturbote 1868--1951: eine Biografie
(/isis/citation/CBB001214211/)
Book
Christa Jungnickel;
Russell McCormmach;
(2018)
The Second Physicist: On the History of Theoretical Physics in Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB957245561/)
Article
Hui, Alexandra;
(2013)
Changeable Ears: Ernst Mach's and Max Planck's Studies of Accommodation in Hearing
(/isis/citation/CBB001320386/)
Chapter
Hoffmann, Dieter;
(2010)
Max Planck in seinem Wirken für die Physikalische Gesellschaft und die Annalen der Physik
(/isis/citation/CBB001024504/)
Book
Massimiliano Badino;
(2015)
The Bumpy Road: Max Planck from Radiation Theory to the Quantum (1896-1906)
(/isis/citation/CBB722524352/)
Book
Anthony Duncan;
Michel Janssen;
(2019)
Constructing Quantum Mechanics: Volume 1: The Scaffold: 1900-1923
(/isis/citation/CBB260967807/)
Article
Sommer, Klaus P.;
(2005)
In das Deutschland “von Hilbert und Einstein”. Briefe von Einstein, Planck, Nernst, Debye, Born, Sommerfeld, Courant, Ehrenfest, Weyl und Althoff an David Hilbert, gefunden auf einem Göttinger Dachboden
(/isis/citation/CBB000670823/)
Article
Schweber, S. S.;
(2009)
Weimar Physics: Sommerfeld's Seminar and the Causality Principle
(/isis/citation/CBB000932737/)
Article
Eckert, Michael;
(2014)
How Sommerfeld Extended Bohr's Model of the Atom (1913--1916)
(/isis/citation/CBB001421692/)
Book
Kaufmann, Doris;
(2000)
Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus: Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektiven der Forschung
(/isis/citation/CBB000110620/)
Article
Petruccioli, Sandro;
(2014)
Correspondence Principle Versus Planck-Type Theory of the Atom
(/isis/citation/CBB001202207/)
Chapter
Goenner, Hubert;
(2010)
Max Plancks Beiträge zur speziellen Relativitätstheorie
(/isis/citation/CBB001024512/)
Article
Eckert, M.;
(2010)
The Troublesome Birth of Hydrodynamic Stability Theory: Sommerfeld and the Turbulence Problem
(/isis/citation/CBB001020940/)
Book
Michael Eckert;
(2013)
Arnold Sommerfeld: Science, Life and Turbulent Times 1868-1951
(/isis/citation/CBB490294723/)
Chapter
Eckert, Michael;
(2010)
Plancks Spätwerk zur Quantentheorie
(/isis/citation/CBB001024510/)
Book
Hoffmann, Dieter;
(2010)
Max Planck und die moderne Physik
(/isis/citation/CBB001024503/)
Chapter
Henning, Eckart;
(2005)
Max Planck: Ein “armer Wirrkopf” als Kollaborateur der Nazis?
(/isis/citation/CBB001023470/)
Article
Dongen, Jeroen van;
(2007)
Reactionaries and Einstein's Fame: “German Scientists for the Preservation of Pure Science,” Relativity, and the Bad Nauheim Meeting
(/isis/citation/CBB000780203/)
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