IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB167006343

Information, meaning and physics: The intellectual evolution of the English School of Information Theory during 1946-1956 (2021)

Science in Context
Volume: 34
Issue: 3
Pages: 357-373
Publication date: 2021
Language: English

DOI: 10.1017/S0269889722000230

URI: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/science-in-context/article/information-meaning-and-physics-the-intellectual-evolution-of-the-english-school-of-information-theory-during-19461956/0ADDEE8EFD570F9AFEFFC6F84DAF5731

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Explanation; hypotheses; theories Statistical mechanics Physics 20th century, late France Brillouin, Léon Nicolas

In this comparative historical analysis, we will analyze the intellectual tendency that emerged between 1946 and 1956 to take advantage of the popularity of communication theory to develop a kind of informational epistemology of statistical mechanics. We will argue that this tendency results from a historical confluence in the early 1950s of certain theoretical claims of the so-called English School of Information Theory, championed by authors such as Gabor (1956) or MacKay (1969), and from the attempt to extend the profound success of Shannon’s ([1948] 1993) technical theory of sign transmission to the field of statistical thermal physics. As a paradigmatic example of this tendency, we will evaluate the intellectual work of Léon Brillouin (1956), who, in the mid-fifties, developed an information theoretical approach to statistical mechanical physics based on a concept of information linked to the knowledge of the observer.

...More

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB167006343

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Mosseri, Rémy; (1999)
Léon Brillouin, 1889-1969: à la croisée des ondes. (Un savant, une époque) (/p/isis/citation/CBB000110216/)

Article Michel Mareschal; (2019)
From Varenna (1970) to Como (1995): Kurt Binder’s long walk in the land of criticality (/p/isis/citation/CBB298158378/)

Essay Review Lith, J. H. van; (2003)
Probability in Classical Statistical Mechanics (/p/isis/citation/CBB000340920/)

Article Salvatore Esposito; Alessandro Amabile; (2024)
Percolating lives: statistical mechanics in Naples (/p/isis/citation/CBB277445198/)

Article D. Levesque; J. P. Hansen; (2019)
The origin of computational statistical mechanics in France (/p/isis/citation/CBB058803175/)

Article Rowlinson, J. S.; (2005)
Einstein: The Classical Physicist (/p/isis/citation/CBB000651781/)

Article Badino, Massimiliano; (2005)
Il contributo di Khinchin al problema ergodico (/p/isis/citation/CBB000701089/)

Essay Review Hagar, Amit; (2014)
Demons in Physics (/p/isis/citation/CBB001500355/)

Article Reiter, Wolfgang L.; (2007)
In Memoriam Ludwig Boltzmann: A Life of Passion (/p/isis/citation/CBB000850200/)

Article Guzmán, Ricardo; Cervera, José Antonio; (2006)
La mecánica estadística: sus orígenes y sus paradojas a la luz de los escritos de Paul y Tatiana Ehrenfest (/p/isis/citation/CBB000930275/)

Chapter Luca Peliti; Raúl Rechtman; (2017)
Einstein’s approach to Statistical Mechanics (/p/isis/citation/CBB012214251/)

Article Lavis, D. A.; (2005)
Boltzmann and Gibbs: An Attempted Reconciliation (/p/isis/citation/CBB000771639/)

Article (2001)
The Conceptual Foundations of Statistical Physics (/p/isis/citation/CBB000100736/)

Article Leeds, Stephen; (2003)
Foundations of Statistical Mechanics: Two Approaches (/p/isis/citation/CBB000410822/)

Article Peter Lukan; (2015)
Roger Boscovich and the Quantum Mechanical Combination of Dynamic and Statistical Laws (/p/isis/citation/CBB866089057/)

Book Olivier Darrigol; (2018)
Atoms, Mechanics, and Probability: Ludwig Boltzmann's Statistico-Mechanical Writings - An Exegesis (/p/isis/citation/CBB560149274/)

Book Howard, Don; Stachel, John; (2000)
Einstein: The formative years, 1879-1909 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000110592/)

Article Badino, Massimiliano; Friedrich, Bretislav; (2013)
Much Polyphony but Little Harmony: Otto Sackur's Groping for a Quantum Theory of Gases (/p/isis/citation/CBB001320410/)

Article Navarro, Luis; Pérez, Enric; (2006)
Paul Ehrenfest: The Genesis of the Adiabatic Hypothesis, 1911--1914 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000670059/)

Article David M. Rogers; (2019)
Range separation: the divide between local structures and field theories (/p/isis/citation/CBB974572915/)