Book ID: CBB978762409

On Theories: Logical Empiricism and the Methodology of Modern Physics (2022)

unapi

Demopoulos, Williams (Author)


Harvard University Press


Publication Date: 2022
Physical Details: 267
Language: English

A renowned philosopher’s final work, illuminating how the logical empiricist tradition has failed to appreciate the role of actual experiments in forming its philosophy of science. The logical empiricist treatment of physics dominated twentieth-century philosophy of science. But the logical empiricist tradition, for all it accomplished, does not do justice to the way in which empirical evidence functions in modern physics. In his final work, the late philosopher of science William Demopoulos contends that philosophers have failed to provide an adequate epistemology of science because they have failed to appreciate the tightly woven character of theory and evidence. As a consequence, theory comes apart from evidence. This trouble is nowhere more evident than in theorizing about particle and quantum physics. Arguing that we must consider actual experiments as they have unfolded across history, Demopoulos provides a new epistemology of theories and evidence, albeit one that stands on the shoulders of giants. On Theories finds clarity in Isaac Newton’s suspicion of mere “hypotheses.” Newton’s methodology lies in the background of Jean Perrin’s experimental investigations of molecular reality and of the subatomic investigations of J. J. Thomson and Robert Millikan. Demopoulos extends this account to offer novel insights into the distinctive nature of quantum reality, where a logico-mathematical reconstruction of Bohrian complementarity meets John Stewart Bell’s empirical analysis of Einstein’s “local realism.” On Theories ultimately provides a new interpretation of quantum probabilities as themselves objectively representing empirical reality.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB978762409/

Similar Citations

Book Sebastian Lutz; Adam Tamas Tuboly; (2021)
Logical Empiricism and the Physical Sciences: From Philosophy of Nature to Philosophy of Physics (/isis/citation/CBB559565016/)

Chapter Steinle, Friedrich; (2009)
How Experiments Make Concepts Fail: Faraday and Magnetic Curves (/isis/citation/CBB001020629/)

Chapter Hon, Giora; (2009)
Error: The Long Neglect, the One-Sided View, and a Typology (/isis/citation/CBB001020625/)

Book Magnani, Lorenzo; Nersessian, Nancy J.; (2002)
Model Based Reasoning: Science, Technology, Values (/isis/citation/CBB000201255/)

Article Collins, H. M.; (2003)
Lead into Gold: The Science of Finding Nothing (/isis/citation/CBB000340897/)

Article Patton, Lydia; (2011)
Reconsidering Experiments (/isis/citation/CBB001230105/)

Book Bitbol, Michel; Gayon, Jean; (2006)
L'épistémologie française, 1830--1970 (/isis/citation/CBB001024794/)

Article M. Anthony Mills; (2015)
Explicating Meyerson: The Critique of Positivism and Historical Épistémologie (/isis/citation/CBB833228543/)

Article Krist Vaesen; (2021)
French Neopositivism and the Logic, Psychology, and Sociology of Scientific Discovery (/isis/citation/CBB634106059/)

Chapter Mark Shumelda; (2012)
At the Limits of Possibility: Thought Experiments in Quantum (/isis/citation/CBB190069058/)

Book Marinho, José Roberto; (2006)
Estudos de História e Filosofia das Ciências: Subsídios para Aplicação no Ensino (/isis/citation/CBB000820185/)

Book Evaldas Nekrašas; (2016)
The Positive Mind: Its Development and Impact on Modernity and Postmodernity (/isis/citation/CBB308281450/)

Article Martin Calamari; (2021)
The Metaphysical Challenge of Loop Quantum Gravity (/isis/citation/CBB643976714/)

Article Philippe Stamenkovic; (2017)
Retour sur la philosophie de la physique quantique d’Ernst Cassirer (/isis/citation/CBB115699306/)

Article Chris Walker; (2019)
Karl Jaspers and Karl Popper: the shared legacy (/isis/citation/CBB353883243/)

Article Grantham, Todd A.; (2000)
Evolutionary Epistemology, Social Epistemology, and the Demic Structure of Science (/isis/citation/CBB000110861/)

Essay Review Klagge, James C.; (2000)
The difficulty here is: To stop (/isis/citation/CBB000110354/)

Book Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg; (2001)
Experimentalsysteme und epistemische Dinge: Eine Geschichte der Proteinsynthese im Reagenzglas (/isis/citation/CBB000410066/)

Authors & Contributors
Nekrašas, Evaldas
Tuboly, Adam Tamas
Martin Calamari
Philippe Stamenkovic
M. Anthony Mills
Vaesen, Krist
Concepts
Philosophy of science
Epistemology
Methodology of science; scientific method
Physics
Experiments and experimentation
Positivism
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
18th century
Places
France
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment