The Event Universe

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leemon B. McHenry
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Field ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Physical Theory ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Linguistic Methods

What kinds of things are events? Battles, explosions, accidents, crashes, rock concerts would be typical examples of events and these would be reinforced in the way we speak about the world. Events or actions function linguistically as verbs and adverbs. Philosophers following Aristotle have claimed that events are dependent on substances such as physical objects and persons. But with the advances of modern physics, some philosophers and physicists have argued that events are the basic entities of reality and what we perceive as physical bodies are just very long events spread out in space-time. In other words, everything turns out to be events. This view, no doubt, radically revises our ordinary common sense view of reality, but as our event theorists argue common sense is out of touch with advancing science. In The Event Universe: The Revisionary Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead, Leemon McHenry argues that Whitehead's metaphysics provides a more adequate basis for achieving a unification of physical theory than a traditional substance metaphysics. He investigates the influence of Maxwell's electromagnetic field, Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics on the development of the ontology of events and compares Whitehead’s theory to his contemporaries, C. D. Broad and Bertrand Russell, as well as another key proponent of this theory, W. V. Quine. In this manner, McHenry defends the naturalized and speculative approach to metaphysics as opposed to analytical and linguistic methods that arose in the 20th century.

Newton To Maxwell: The Principia and British Physics

1988 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-96 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Absolute Space ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Quantum Theories ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Newtonian Physics ◽  
World Picture ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Physics

It is conventional to denote the physics of the period 1700-1900, from A the Principia to the advent of the relativity and quantum theories, as ‘classical’ or ‘Newtonian’ physics. These terms are not, however, very satisfactory as historical categories. The contrast between classical and ‘modern’ physics is perceived in terms that highlight the innovatory features of physics after 1900: the abandonment of the concepts of absolute space and time in Einstein’s theory of relativity, and of causality and determinism in quantum mechanics. ‘ Classical ’ physics is thus defined by ‘non-classical’ physics. The definitions and axioms of Principia , Newton’s exposition of the concepts of absolute space and time, and his statement of the Newtonian laws of motion, are rightly seen as fundamental to the 17th-century mechanization of the world picture.

scholarly journals On Russell’s 1927 Book The Analysis of Matter

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Said Mikki
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Philosophy Of Nature ◽  
Foundations Of Physics ◽  
The World ◽  
Ordinal Space ◽  
Historical Fact

The goal of this article is to bring into wider attention the often neglected important work by Bertrand Russell on the philosophy of nature and the foundations of physics, published in the year 1927. It is suggested that the idea of what could be named Russell space, introduced in Part III of that book, may be viewed as more fundamental than many other types of spaces since the highly abstract nature of the topological ordinal space proposed by Russell there would incorporate into its very fabric the emergent nature of spacetime by deploying event assemblages, but not spacetime or particles, as the fundamental building blocks of the world. We also point out the curious historical fact that the book The Analysis of Matter can be chronologically considered the earliest book-length generic attempt to reflect on the relation between quantum mechanics, just emerging by that time, and general relativity.

Philosophy of Physics: A Very Short Introduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Philosophy Of Physics ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Parallel Universes ◽  
Large Systems

Philosophy of Physics: A Very Short Introduction explores the core topics of philosophy of physics through three key themes: the nature of space and time; the origin of irreversibility and probability in the physics of large systems; how we can make sense of quantum mechanics. Central issues discussed include: the scientific method as it applies in modern physics; the distinction between absolute and relative motion; the way that distinction changes between Newton’s physics and special relativity; what spacetime is and how it relates to the laws of physics; how fundamental physics can make no distinction between past and future and yet a clear distinction exists in the world we see around us; why it is so difficult to understand quantum mechanics, and why doing so might push us to change our fundamental physics, to rethink the nature of science, or even to accept the existence of parallel universes.

Electrodynamics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Cushing
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Physical Theory ◽  
Special Theory ◽  
Classical Electrodynamics ◽  
Quantum Field ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Electric And Magnetic Fields ◽  
Fundamental Physical

Electric charges interact via the electric and magnetic fields they produce. Electrodynamics is the study of the laws governing these interactions. The phenomena of electricity and of magnetism were once taken to constitute separate subjects. By the beginning of the nineteenth century they were recognized as closely related topics and by the end of that century electromagnetic phenomena had been unified with those of optics. Classical electrodynamics provided the foundation for the special theory of relativity, and its unification with the principles of quantum mechanics has led to modern quantum field theory, arguably our most fundamental physical theory to date.

Interperspectival Content and Physical Theory

2019 ◽  
pp. 155-181
Author(s):  
Peter Ludlow
Keyword(s):  
Physical Theory ◽  
Special Theory ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Scientific Investigation ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Special Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Normative Behavior ◽  
Base Level ◽  
Scientific Experimentation ◽  
The World

The book has made the case that linguistic tense and other perspectival language are used to express interperspectival contents and that such contents are needed to explain and understand a number of phenomena, ranging from human action and emotion, to perception, consciousness, normative behavior (understood broadly enough to include the behavior of computers), etc. The fact that physics may not need perspectival contents does not undermine the case for such contents. Indeed, as this chapter argues, perspectival content is critical to the practice of scientific investigation (particularly in the context of scientific experimentation), and may well need to be a component in our base-level descriptions of the world. It is further argued that perspectival contents like tense are compatible with the Special Theory of Relativity, given our theory of the expression of interperspectival contents.

Scientific Realism and the Quantum

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Quantum Field ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Physics

Scientific realism has traditionally maintained that our best scientific theories can be regarded as more or less true and as representing the world as it is (more or less). However, one of our very best current theories—quantum mechanics—has famously resisted such a realist construal, threatening to undermine the realist stance altogether. The chapters in this volume carefully examine this tension and the reasons behind it, including the underdetermination generated by the multiplicity of formulations and interpretations of quantum physics, each presenting a different way the world could be. Authors in this volume offer a range of alternative ways forward: some suggest new articulations of realism, limiting our commitments in one way or another; others attempt to articulate a ‘third way’ between traditional forms of realism and antirealism, or are critical of such attempts. Still others argue that quantum theory itself should be reconceptualised, or at least alternative formulations should be considered in the hope of evading the problems faced by realism. And some examine the nature of these issues when moving beyond quantum mechanics to quantum field theory. Taken together they offer an exciting new set of perspectives on one of the most fundamental questions in the philosophy of modern physics: how can one be a realist about quantum theory, and what does this realism amount to?

scholarly journals K.F. VON WEIZSÄCKER’S RELATIONAL PROGRAMME TO BUILD PHYSICS

Metaphysics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 131-143
Author(s):  
A. Yu Sevalnikov ◽  
A. V Rodina
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Physical Theory ◽  
Theory Of Relativity

This paper is devoted to the key ideas of K. F. von Weizsäcker. His book “Aufbau der Physik”, which is dedicated to building a unified physical theory, is in the focus. Confirming that quantum mechanics is a universal physical theory, Weizsäcker is looking for ways to construct it. Based on the logic of temporary statements, introducing the concept of the Uralternative, Weizsäcker comes to the construction of quantum theory. He shows that on its basis the theory of relativity can be obtained, the structure of space with a relational character can be deduced.

Mechanics, classical

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Classical Mechanics ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Rigid Bodies ◽  
Dimensional Euclidean Space ◽  
Absolute Space ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
The World ◽  
Physical Phenomena

Understood at its most general, ‘classical mechanics’ covers the approach to physical phenomena that dominated science from roughly the time of Galileo until the early decades of the twentieth century. The approach is usually characterized by the assumption that bodies carry an inherent mass and well-defined positions and velocities. Bodies subsist within a three-dimensional absolute space and influence one another through reciprocal forces. These objects obey the three laws of motion articulated by Isaac Newton in 1686 in a deterministic manner: once a mechanical system is assembled, its future behaviour is rigidly fixed. Such ‘classical’ assumptions were eventually rejected by Einstein’s theory of relativity, where the assumption of a three-dimensional Euclidean space is abandoned, and by quantum mechanics, where determinism and well-defined positions and velocity are eschewed. Classical mechanics is frequently characterized as ‘billiard ball mechanics’ or ‘the theory of mechanism’ on the grounds that the science treats its materials in the manner of colliding particles, or clockwork. Such stereotypes should be approached with caution because the basic framework of classical mechanics has long been subject to divergent interpretations that unpack the content of Newton’s ‘three laws’ in remarkably different ways. These differing interpretations provide incompatible catalogues of the basic objects that are supposed to comprise the ‘classical world’ – are they point masses, rigid bodies or flexible substances? Or, as many writers have suggested, should mechanics not be regarded as ‘about’ the world at all, but merely as a source of useful but fictitious idealizations of reality? These foundational disagreements explain why classical mechanics has often found itself entangled in metaphysics. Much of modern philosophy of science is characterized by attitudes that were originally articulated during the nineteenth century’s attempts to clarify the grounds of classical mechanics.

scholarly journals “ANDERSSEIN” IN MODERN PHYSICS: EXIT TO TRANSCENDENT

Metaphysics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
A. Yu Sevalnikov
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Flow Of Time

The work is devoted to the problem of the transcendent in modern physics. It is shown that the theory of relativity, but above all quantum mechanics, indicate the existence of a different mode of reality. It is with this “otherness” that the paradoxical flow of time observed in modern physics is connected.

scholarly journals Connection Between Maxwell's Equations and the Dirac Equation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Golden Gadzirayi Nyambuya
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Field ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Maxwell’S Equations ◽  
Maxwell's Equations ◽  
Charged Particles ◽  
Direct Function ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
One Step ◽  
Electrically Charged ◽  
Insight Into

Electrically charged particles such as Electrons and Protons carry electric, E, and magnetic, B, fields. In addition to these fields, Quantum Mechanics (QM) endows these particles with an `arcane and spooky' field --- the wavefunction. This wavefunction of QM is not only assumed to be separate but distinct from the electromagnetic field. We herein upend this view by demonstrating otherwise. That is, we demonstrate that the four components of the Dirac wavefunction, can be shown to not only be an intimate, but, a direct function of the electromagnetic field carried by the particle in question. Insofar as unity, depth in our understanding and insight into both Dirac and Maxwell's equations as major pillars of Modern Physics, we believe that this work may very well inch us one-step-closer to the truth.

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