Thesis ID: CBB001561193

The Doctrine of Description: Gustav Kirchhoff, Classical Physics, and the “Purpose of All Science” in 19th-Century Germany (2008)

unapi

Oldham, Kalil T. Swain (Author)


University of California, Berkeley
Carson, Cathryn


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Advisor: Carson, Cathryn
Physical Details: 431 pp.
Language: English

In 1875 Berlin University hired Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-1887) to fill its first chair in theoretical physics. When he introduced his inaugural series of lectures that summer, on mechanics, Kirchhoff argued that physics should avoid seeking causal explanations and limit itself only to simple and accurate descriptions of natural phenomena. He held to this position, a brand of epistemological phenomenalism, until his retirement nearly ten years later. Kirchhoff's 1875 lectures represent a manifestation of the complicated relationship between philosophy and physics, which characterizes the history of nineteenth-century German science. Using Kirchhoff's story as a wedge, this dissertation examines that relationship. Kirchhoff's philosophical and methdological stance foreshadowed a rising tide of ambivalence about claims to absolute truth in the natural sciences. Looking at episodes from the history of classical physics (electrodynamics, physical chemistry, and thermodynamics) and the history of philosophy of science, this dissertation highlights the complex ways in which physics and philosophy intertwined in the nineteenth century. A close-knit group of professors--including Kirchhoff, Hermann von Helmholtz, Emil du Bois-Reymond, Robert Bunsen, and Eduard Zeller--negotiated the boundaries of their particular disciplines as they debated the purpose and limits of scientific inquiry in general. While philosophical reflections by natural scientists were not uncommon, the methodological and epistemological positions developed by Kirchhoff and his colleagues--at Heidelberg and Berlin--are important because they provided a framework for discussions of the foundations of modern theoretical physics. Occurring in the generation after Kirchhoff's, these foundational discussions paved the way for the modern revolutions in physics and their profound philosophical implications. Kirchhoff's decision to divorce the natural sciences from metaphysical notions, therefore, had significant consequences for science and philosophy in the years around the fin de siècle . The audience for this dissertation will include historians of German physics, historians of nineteenth-century science in general, scholars interested in the intersection between the history of science and philosophy, and those interested in the broader interaction between science and culture.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 69/10 (2009). Pub. no. AAT 3331743.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561193/

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Authors & Contributors
Cahan, David L.
Gori, Pietro
D'Agostino, Salvo
Wegener, Daan
Vagt, Christina
Schmidgen, Henning
Concepts
Physics
Philosophy of science
Philosophy
Music
Universities and colleges
Science and technology, relationships
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
Places
Germany
United States
Europe
Great Britain
Austro-hungary
Institutions
Heidelberg Universität
Royal Society (Great Britain). European Science Exchange Programme
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