scholarly journals The cultural significance of physics and evolution in Francoist Spain: continuity and development in the autarchic period

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. e003
Author(s):  
Clara Florensa ◽  
Xavier Roqué
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Living World ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
National Catholicism ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
Biological Reasoning

Science took on several distinct uses and meanings under Francoism. It was exhibited as a token of intellectual prowess, deployed as a mighty diplomatic tool, applied as a resource for industry, and invoked in support of National Catholicism. However, in order to successfully fulfill all these roles, science had first to be cleansed and purified, for it was historically bound to materialism, atheism, and positivism. Physics had developed a mechanical worldview that precluded spiritual agency, and the theory of evolution had deprived man of his privileged place in nature. Could these developments be reversed? Classical physics would not easily serve the needs of the new National Catholic state, but modern physics might do, acting as a model and a tool for biological reasoning. In this paper we describe the various attempts by Spanish scientists, philosophers, and intellectuals to enlist modern physics and a revised version of evolution in the construction of the new regime. They strove to show their spiritual value, to sever them from a soul-less modernity, and to reinstate them within a grand universal Catholic tradition. We discuss the import of their arguments for the simultaneous debates about time, space, matter, life, and evolution, exploring the affinities and tensions between the inert and the living world.

Historical Origins

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-45
Author(s):  
J. Arvid Ågren
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Group Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Living World ◽  
Selfish Gene ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
The Third ◽  
Historical Origins ◽  
The Way

This chapter traces the origins of the gene’s-eye view through three sections of evolutionary biology. The first is adaptationism, the tradition that takes the appearance of design in living world to be the cardinal problem a theory of evolution needs to explain. The chapter shows how this view has been especially prominent in British biology, owing the strong standing of natural theology and the writings of William Paley. The second is the emergence of population genetics during the modern synthesis. Here, the work of R.A. Fisher was particularly important. The third and final section was the levels selection debate and the rejection of group selection. G.C. Williams led the way the way and the origin of the gene’s-eye view culminated with the publication of The Selfish Gene.

Seoul's Deathscapes: Incorporating Tradition into Modern Time – Space

10.1068/a3455 ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 1489-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth K Teather ◽  
Hae Un Rii ◽  
Eun Hye Kim
Keyword(s):  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Small Space ◽  
Time Space ◽  
The Family ◽  
Space Saving ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Dramatic Shift ◽  
Dome Shape

Honouring the dead at their graveside at appropriate dates is required by Confucian tradition, and has always had significant time – space implications in Korea. Today, with the majority of Koreans now living in cities—a dramatic shift in the last two generations—many still travel to patrilineal ancestral villages to carry out the necessary annual rites in family graveyards established long ago. However, an official campaign to encourage cremation in Seoul was initiated in 1998. A small, space-saving family tomb has been designed to hold the ashes of up to twenty-four family members, and is being promoted at public cemeteries. Fieldwork was carried out into deathscapes in the vicinity of Seoul in late 1999. The paper describes small family graveyards, including one established generations ago and two that have been newly established. It also describes different types of columbaria, two of which employ the traditional dome shape of Korean graves. Discussion focuses on the persistent cultural significance of maintaining ties with patrilineal places of origin. We suggest that this is a valued Confucian dimension of Korean heritage; many are seeking manageable ways to incorporate this dimension in their predominantly urban time – space commitments. From family graveyard to columbarium, there is a progressive divorce from ancestral territory (the family graveyard in the patrilineal village) and from social context (lineage).

scholarly journals Dirac Redux - Dirac’s Equation in Physical Spacetime without Internal Degrees of Freedom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sokol Andoni
Keyword(s):  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Spacetime Algebra ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Present Formalism ◽  
Covariant Equation ◽  
Physical Spacetime ◽  
Internal Degrees Of Freedom

Abstract The Dirac equation (DE) is one of the cornerstones of quantum physics. We prove in the present contribution that the notion of internal degrees of freedom of the electron represented by Dirac’s matrices is superfluous. One can write down a coordinate-free manifestly covariant equation by direct quantization of the energy-momentum 4-vector P with modulus m: P(psi) = m(psi) (no slash!), the spinor (psi) taking care of the different vector grades at the two sides of the equation. Electron spin and all the standard DE properties emerge from this equation. In coordinate representation, the four orthonormal time-space frame vectors x0, x1, x2, x3 formally substitute Dirac’s gamma-matrices, the two sets obeying to the same Clifford algebra. The present formalism expands Hestenes’ spacetime algebra (STA) by adding a reflector vector x5, which in 3D transforms a parity-odd vector x into a parity-even vector x5x and vice versa. STA augmented by the reflector will be referred to as STAR, which operates on a real vector space of same dimension as the equivalent real dimension of Dirac’s complex 4 x 4 matrices. There are no matrices in STAR and the complex character springs from the signature and dimension of spacetime-reflection. This appears most clearly by first showing that STAR comprises two isomorphic subspaces, one for the generators of polar vectors and boosts and the other for the generators of axial vectors and rotors, comprising Pauli spin vectors. These then help to discuss the symmetries, probability current, transformation properties and nonrelativistic approximation of STAR DE. By proving that Dirac’s matrices are redundant, because all the information from them is contained in spacetime-reflection, it becomes relevant to reexamine those areas of modern physics that take Dirac matrices and their generalizations as fundamental.

The Ether at the Crossroads of Classical and Modern Physics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imogen Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Substantial Role ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Future ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
British Case ◽  
Arthur Stanley Eddington ◽  
Oliver Lodge

This chapter aims to liberate the ether from its historiographical assignment to classical physics, instead considering its role in debates surrounding the future of the discipline. Focusing on the British case, it explores the discussions underway in professional spaces between 1909 and 1914, suggesting that a physicist’s commitment to the ether does not classify them as a ‘classicist’ but rather as an advocate of continuity in the discipline. It then examines the ether’s ‘popular’ life following the well-publicised 1919 eclipse expedition, and the subsequent expository efforts by the ‘classical’ Oliver Lodge and ‘modern’ Arthur Stanley Eddington. By moving beyond a traditional approach that divides physics and physicists into classical and modern, this chapter suggests a more substantial role for the ether in professional and popular early twentieth-century British physics.

The Conservative Side of the Natural Science

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Early Universe ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Molecular Basis ◽  
Evolutionary Tree ◽  
Primordial Black Hole ◽  
Natural Scientist ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Modern Physics

Natural scientist — like physicist and biologist — may think themselves as liberal. They seem, however, to have a strong conservative that impacts diversity in research and unity in thinking. I explored why this conservative in direction exists in the literature and the implications that it has on our — as human — choices for research and thinking about nature. My exploration revealed that the directional conservative expressed by ‘conserved from species X to human’ that indicate from lower to higher organism. In physics, as well, the directional conservative expressed by ‘make a Y or Z from modern physics theory analogous to the classical one’ that indicate we are still working to figure out the details of how classical physics emerge from the modern domain. It implications on our choices for research is make us feel confusion to answer questions like: ‘Can one have atoms in which the nucleus is a tiny primordial black hole formed in the early universe?’ in physics, nor ‘If human have free will, where in the evolutionary tree did it develop?’ in biology. The conservative also implicates on our thinking about nature that hard to imagine how free will can operate if our behavior — as ‘higher’ organism — is determined by physical law based on our understanding of the molecular basis of biology.

scholarly journals A Bridge Connecting Classical Physics and Modern Physics

2016 ◽  
Vol 07 (11) ◽  
pp. 1378-1387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tower Chen ◽  
Zeon Chen
Keyword(s):  
Classical Physics ◽  
Modern Physics

scholarly journals Basics of Consciousness Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Bondarev
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Theoretical Construct ◽  
Abstract Object ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
High Speeds ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
The Creation

The verifiable concepts of classical physics proved unsuitable to create physics of small distances, high speeds, and large masses. Is there any chance that the verifiable notions of reality developed by modern physics and other branches of science will prove suitable to create a scientific theory of consciousness, which one day should appear? The paper examines what prevents the creation of scientific models of consciousness that can effectively represent empirical experience, and what theoretical construct (abstract object) is needed to create these models.

scholarly journals Rethinking ‘Classical Physics’

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Gooday ◽  
Daniel Jon Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Max Planck ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Experimental Physics ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Comparative Case Studies

This article discusses the reasons for rethinking ‘classical physics’, building upon Richard Staley’s historical enquiry into the origins of the distinction between ‘classical’ and ‘modern physics’. In particular, it challenges Staley’s thesis that ‘classical’ and ‘modern physics’ were invented simultaneously by Max Planck at the Solvay conference in 1911, arguing instead that the emergence of these notions took place separately over a period that reached as late as the 1930s. The article first considers how the identification of the ether as a key feature of classical physics has drawn historians’ attention towards its changing metaphysical fortunes during the nineteenth century. It then describes the connections between physics and industry that are obscured by the theoretical bias of any dichotomy between ‘classical’ and ‘modern physics’. Finally, it highlights continuity in the field of French experimental physics by focusing on three comparative case studies dealing with electrocapillarity, electromagnetic waves, and X-rays.

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.

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