Symbol and Physical Knowledge
Subtitle: On the Conceptual Structure of Physics
By: edited by Massimo Ferrari, Ion-Olimpiu Stamatescu
Contributors: Stamatescu, Ion-Olimpiu
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Berlin, Heidelberg
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9783642074745; 9783662048559
Subjects: Physics
Description: This book tackles the question of the symbolic structure of physics, a topic which is implicit in any theory of knowledge, but one that often seems to be ignored as an explicit and central element in today's epistemological debates. The elucidation of this problem should benefit a number of ongoing discussions and can help to avoid much recurring confusion. The contributions to the book have been chosen so as to provide a coherent view, ultimately addressing the relation between the concepts used in science and the real world. The first part provides an introduction to the problem as it arises in physics, and to the modern history of symbols. The subject of the second part is the epistemological discussion taking place between physicists and philosophers about the role of symbols in our knowledge of Nature. The third part addresses key issues related to the methodology of physics and the character of its symbolic structures. The aim of this book is to provide a consistent, if not comprehensive, view, emphasizing aspects that are paradigmatic for the natural sciences as a whole.
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Table of contents: title: From the Contents: On the Use and Character of Symbols in Modern Physical Theories; title: Sources for the History of the Concept of Symbol from Leibniz to Cassirer; title: The Symbol in the Theory of Science: Duhem's Alleged Instrumentalism or Conventionalism and the Continuity of Scientific Development; title: Beyond Realism. Symbolism in Philosophy of Science by Peirce and Cassirer; title: Heinrich Hertz and the Concept of a Symbol; title: Shifting Symbolic Structures and Changing Theories: On the Non-Translatability and Empirical Comparability of Incommensurable Theories; title: Symbol and Intuition in Modern Physics; title: Idealizations in Physics; title: Symbolizing States and Events in Quantum Mechanics; title: The Semiotics of "Postmodern" Physics.